Two of the most glorious words in college basketball are Feast Week, a tip-to-tail celebration of the sport while everyone's plopped in front of their televisions over the Thanksgiving holiday. MTEs (or multi-team events for short) take over the calendar, setting the stage for showcases of the best teams in the nation. And this year, the Player's Era Festival in Las Vegas is taking center stage.
The new, NIL-heavy event has expanded from eight teams to 18 in 2025, with an eye towards a 32-team field in 2026. But at what cost to the rest of the traditional Feast Week events, especially the Maui Invitational? Read on for a look at that and some of other top college hoops headlines in Week 4 with the latest edition of FanSided's College Basketball Stock Watch.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Risers
The Player's Era Festival
The field at the Player's Era Festival is absolutely stacked, and the basketball in Las Vegas should be thrilling. Monday's opening day brought a few thrilling contests, including a 1-point victory for No. 15 Iowa State over No. 14 St. John's, a nail-biter for No. 3 Houston over Syracuse and a barn-burner that saw No. 12 Gonzaga earn a fourth win over a power conference team by toppling No. 8 Alabama.
After Tuesday's action, a third set of matchups will be drawn that will see the two best teams from the first two days play for the championship. The amount of high-level basketball we're seeing in Vegas is fantastic and a true treat for the college hoops-obsessed among us.
Arizona Wildcats
There may not be a better victory so far this season than Arizona's true road win over UConn in Storrs last week. It was the third victory for the Wildcats over a ranked team already, pairing nicely with an opening-night win over Florida and another over former Pac-12 rival UCLA.
While freshman Koa Peat has been the headliner for the Wildcats, Arizona has showed some impressive depth and grit early on, winning the rebounding margin by 20 against UConn in a hostile environment. The confidence that Arizona is building is important if they hope to unseat Houston as the Big 12's top dogs once conference play hits.
Michigan State Spartans
Some key losses to the draft and the transfer portal in the offseason led many experts to write off Michigan State heading into the year, with the Spartans largely viewed as a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten squad. But underestimating a Tom Izzo team with four returning starters is never a good idea, and Sparty is making the haters look foolish with a 5-0 start that includes victories against two ranked SEC squads — headlined by a demolition of Kentucky at the Champions Classic.
While no one will mistake the Spartans for an offensive juggernaut, they play with the typical toughness and tenacity of an Izzo-coached team, attacking the glass and defending very well. Those traits, along with the sort of continuity that is important in this era of player movement, give Michigan State an excellent shot to jostle with Purdue and Illinois for a spot at the head of the Big Ten table.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Fallers
The rest of Feast Week
While the Player's Era Festival is garnering huge fields loaded with top teams, the trickle-down effect has hurt the quality of competition elsewhere during Feast Week. The Battle 4 Atlantis and Maui Invitational, long the two most notable events of the week, have fields with much less star power than the Player's Era Festival, which can offer more NIL money than either of its competitors can.
Programs that hope to attract the best talent will be drawn to the Player's Era Festival by following the money, which will put a dent in the rest of these MTEs. If the likes of Duke, North Carolina and Kansas are no longer going to Maui or similar events on the regular, it is hard to see how they can survive as staples of the season.
Kentucky Wildcats
It turns out money isn't the be-all, end-all in the player movement era, which Kentucky is learning the hard way. A loss to Louisville on the road was understandable since the game was close and the Cardinals are a very talented team, but seeing the Wildcats get smacked around by a Michigan State side no one will mistake for a juggernaut at the Champions Classic is a five-alarm fire for Big Blue Nation.
Mark Pope is only in his second year as Kentucky's head coach, but the honeymoon period is over as the Wildcat faithful are getting restless after looking outmatched against both high-major programs they have faced so far this season. Better health will be an asset, especially if the Wildcats can get center Jayden Quaintance back soon, but there is too much skill on Kentucky's roster to look like they don't belong on the same floor as a team like the Spartans.
Upsets
One of the staples of the non-conference season is seeing a ranked school fall to an unranked team we hadn't heard much from, which is an early indicator of potential March Madness sleepers. Those types of upsets have been essentially non-existent so far this season, with Seton Hall's victory over No. 23 NC State at the Maui Invitational marking the first time in the new year that a ranked school lost to an unranked competitor.
The concentration of talent at top programs has made it harder for the next wave of schools to make their mark, so keep an eye on the MTEs this week to see how many unranked programs can actually pull off a huge upset. If the Pirates' victory is more of an aberration than the start of a welcome trend, we could be in line for a season with less parity than we've seen in years.