Kentucky, UNC, Kansas, Michigan, UConn in discussions with big new blue blood-laden college basketball event

College basketball's next huge regular-season event is in the works and, if it materializes as planned, will give the sport another massive must-see attraction.

The proposal — currently in the latter planning stages — is an eight-team pool-play event called the "Diamond Cup" that would debut for the 2027-28 men's basketball season, sources told CBS Sports. If it comes together as designed, the Diamond Cup will be blue blood-laden and, in addition to the Players Era Tournament, bolster the mainstream appeal of college basketball's opening month in a way that's never been done before.

The eight schools involved in deep discussions — but, as many sources stressed, are not yet signed — represent the lion's share of the most storied and accomplished programs in college hoops history: Arizona, Connecticut, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and North Carolina. Seven of those schools have been in talks with Diamond Cup stakeholders since last summer; Duke bowed out earlier this spring due to its three-game contract with Amazon Prime Video, which starts later this year. (More on that below.)

The Diamond Cup was concocted by former St. John's athletic director Mike Cragg, who also previously worked at Duke for more than three decades; former Nike executive Eric Lautenbach, who has fostered significant relationships at the college level for decades; and former Draft Kings and television executive Ezra Kucharz. The trio has connected with William Morris Endeavor's (WME) basketball division and IMG to help in media advisory roles, according to a pitch deck obtained by CBS Sports. Intersport, one of the premier organizations in college athletics for game operations, has agreed to be a partner for ticketing, marketing and logistics, a source added.

In one pitch deck for the event, Diamond Cup organizers define their new competition as "a premium, scalable, made-for-media college basketball franchise built to redefine the regular season. It delivers guaranteed blue-chip brands, premium viewership and serialized national narratives across multiple cities."

One big sell to the schools: Equity in the Diamond Cup, which would potentially give them additional earning potential if it becomes a major mainstay on college basketball's schedule into the 2030s.

"As the first shared-equity alliance in college sports, the Diamond Cup creates deep institutional alignment and reimagines the beginning of the season for college basketball," the pitch deck also states. "This long-term continuity is not just a tournament, but a new media property designed for the next era of live sports distribution."

The driving force of the event is a desire to uplift college basketball's opening month and make the sport feel as big as possible long before March Madness arrives. Diamond Cup's founders want to foster as many big-time matchups as possible (especially to benefit the regular season now that a 76-team NCAA Tournament could dull some of the relevance of the nonconference schedule).

The details and format of the Diamond Cup have shifted from the original premise in the summer of 2025. The initial pitch was a four-game series for every team (16 games per season overall) on a three-year contract starting in 2027-28. That format includes three regular-season matchups and, to start, one October exhibition game that would nonetheless count toward the Diamond Cup's pool-play results to determine a champion. The initial eight schools were lobbied in 2025 on the premise that they could make approximately $17 million over the course of the deal, sources said, provided the optimal media rights package could be sold.

That number has since changed, as has the format for Year 1. The 2027-28 season will likely be a two-game agreement, with open discussions on potentially moving to a four-game format (one preseason, three regular season) for 2028-29, sources said. Under a two-game arrangement in 2027, schools will purportedly receive $2.25 million apiece, sources said. The format for Years 2 and 3 are supposed to bump to $3.75 million per school.

"Unprecedented guaranteed revenue for each school in a new era of competition and player revenue share requirements," the pitch deck claims. "Huge guarantee [and] potential Name, Image [and] Likeness opportunities for players."

The October preseason game is a twist on convention but was included in an effort to alleviate regular-season scheduling logistics while also easily arranging for some of the biggest programs to still play each other, amping interest before the start of the season. Keep in mind, teams are now commanding big figures ($500,000 or more in many instances) to play high-profile scrimmages in October.

Because there's still no broadcast partner inked and some teams are still awaiting more details before they sign contracts, the Diamond Cup isn't yet a guarantee. But this story has been brewing for almost a year, and as the months have gone on, sources at most schools continue to express their interest in participating. If/when it comes to fruition, here's more on how the event could play out.

Diamond Cup format details

While some crucial specifics haven't been finalized, there is one key element to making the Diamond Cup a reality: neutral-site locations. As glorious as it would be to see the likes of UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan, etc. playing each other in on-campus venues every year, the schools' conferences own the broadcast rights to all home games. And since conferences have competing TV deals, this prevents the Diamond Cup from ever being an on-campus arrangement.

By playing games at certain neutral sites, the broadcast opportunities become more flexible, and therefore, open up the possibility of an achievable media rights deal. Cup organizers described it as "low friction to current and possible future NCAA scheduling models" in their pitch to potential media partners.

A separate pitch deck presented to the schools included this sell: "The most ambitious and electrifying college basketball event ever created — 33 days, six playing dates, three iconic cities, eight blue blood programs, and 16 high-stakes men's basketball games that will reshape the non-conference calendar for years to come. Each school plays four Diamond Cup games (3 regular season/1 exhibition) in pool play format from October thru Thanksgiving Week — in three neutral site cities."

In a four-game scenario (which would total 16 games between the eight schools), the goal is to play games on the West Coast, in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Chicago and New York are under serious consideration in that potential model for 2028 and beyond, but only if the Diamond Cup gets to the four-game format. In the two-game scenario for all teams in 2027, the games will be played at one site surrounding Thanksgiving. That site is not yet decided.

Teams from the same conference (Michigan and Indiana, Kansas and Arizona) would theoretically not be scheduled against each other. The change in NCAA rules regarding MTEs (multi-team events) also makes the Diamond Cup a viable format moving forward.

Diamond Cup founders have vowed the "highest revenue guarantee in history to all founding institutions," with the intention to rotate the cities/sites in order to make the event a national college basketball jamboree that can be featured across the country. There would also be a "player marketing fund" for the rosters, in an effort to contribute significant NIL opportunities.

Organizers are also exploring the concept for women's basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball for years down the road, sources said.

Why Duke isn't in the field

Ironically, the genesis for the Diamond Cup was sparked in no small part by one school that's no longer involved in the event. Before Cragg was St. John's athletic director, he worked his way up in Duke Athletics and helped foster the marketing and scheduling for Duke throughout its rise in the 1990s and 2000s as a national sports powerhouse. It would only make sense that Cragg would recruit Duke for the Diamond Cup, and for months the Blue Devils were involved in talks. The Blue Devils' inclusion in the field was as crucial, if not more so, than any other school because Duke is considered the most valuable program in college basketball.

Connections with executives at Amazon also led to the possibility, months ago, for Prime Video to be in the mix as a rights holder for the Diamond Cup.

But Duke coach Jon Scheyer eventually had other ideas.

Flash forward to May 2026 and Duke has its own three-game deal with Amazon Prime Video in the years ahead. In order for Scheyer and Duke to pursue that deal, it had to make financial sense if it was going to pivot off the Diamond Cup. And since the Diamond Cup was pitching schools on more than $4 million per year, it's believed Duke's deal with Amazon will pay north of $5 million per season on that multi-year deal. The Blue Devils announced neutral-site games for the 2026-27 season against UConn (in Las Vegas), Michigan (in New York City) and Gonzaga (in Detroit).

Coincidentally enough, those three opponents are all in the Diamond Cup mix for 2027 and beyond. Duke negotiating its Amazon deal was savvy but also led to a trade-off: For 2027-28 and 2028-29, the Blue Devils can't play in any other multi-game events not affiliated with ESPN due to an agreement between the school, the ACC and ESPN.

Looming Players Era complications

The potential inclusion of Michigan, Kansas, Gonzaga and Arizona in the Diamond Cup will complicate another huge November event: The Players Era Tournament. The Players Era poached from other events; will it suffer a similar wound and lose some of its biggest schools? It's a major dangling thread that has stalled the Diamond Cup's progression over the past few months.

Michigan has a three-year contract with that event. Year 3 would be in 2027-28 — the first year of the Diamond Cup. The Wolverines have an opt-out clause in their contract, should another event offer to pay more than Players Era, but at the same time, Players Era also has the chance to match the payout, sources said.

If 2027-28's first iteration of the Diamond Cup is only two games, the issue could be avoided altogether if the Diamond Cup is staged to start the season. But if those two games are around Thanksgiving, which is the plan as of now, then something will have to give, as the Players Era event (which is now two separate tournaments and 24 teams total) is staged in and around Thanksgiving as well.

Kansas is the highest-paid team in Players Era and is a part of the Big 12, like Arizona is. The league has a five-year contract with Players Era and will slot eight of its schools into the 24-team field in the years ahead. Would the Big 12 be OK with having its two biggest schools annually participating in the Diamond Cup but not being involved in Players Era? One source said Kansas carved in some opt-outs, if necessary, with Players Era and that it's possible for future workarounds.

Gonzaga is also currently on board to play in 2027 with Players Era, but because MTE rules and regulations have changed, there is a scenario in which Gonzaga could play in the eight-team Players Era tournament the week before Thanksgiving and then in the Diamond Cup surrounding Turkey Day.

While the Diamond Cup would not be nearly as large as Players Era, it would feature as impressive a group of mainstream programs of any event in college basketball history — and therefore be a formidable competitor to Players Era while simultaneously uplifting college basketball's marquee appeal in November.

It could also continue to drain on other nonconference multi-game events as a result.

Players Era and Diamond Cup would feature approximately 30 of college basketball's biggest schools and take up more than 50 games worth of nonconference inventory. The two events would be huge while simultaneously diluting the opportunities for tournaments such as the Maui Invitational, the Battle 4 Atlantis, the ESPN Events Invitational, the Fort Myers Tip-Off and other single-site events.

The next step is getting the schools to sign the contracts in the coming weeks, sources said, with an official announcement on the Diamond Cup landing in early July if all goes to plan. If it does, the first month of college basketball's season come 2027 will be as anticipated as arguably any the sport has seen in a generation.

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