Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer scheduled 15 games for nonconference play this season. However, it seems like he was willing to play at least one more team.
“I’ll play the Boston Celtics best out of seven if they’re going to give me a million dollars to give my kids in NIL,” Schaefer recently stated.
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Texas won’t actually have to play the Celtics for a million dollars. UCLA and either South Carolina or Duke will do.
Texas Longhorns guard Aaliyah Crump (23) shoots the ball as Richmond Spiders forward Tierra Simon (0) defends in the third quarter as the Longhorns take on the Spiders at the Moody Center in Austin, Nov. 7, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
No. 4 Texas (5-0) is playing in this week’s Players Era Championship and will face No. 3 UCLA (6-0) Wednesday at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. The winner and loser of that buzz-worthy early-season battle will spend Thanksgiving playing the corresponding winner and loser of a clash between No. 2 South Carolina (6-0) and Duke (3-3).
NO. 4 TEXAS VS. NO. 3 UCLA
When/where: 1 p.m. Wednesday in Las Vegas.
TV/radio: truTV; 1300 AM.
MORE: Texas women’s basketball players Rori Harmon, Justice Carlton happy to ditch knee braces
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For Texas, this trip to Las Vegas isn’t just about testing itself against two fellow Final Four qualifiers from last season and a Duke team that was an Elite Eight squad. Each of the programs participating in the 2025 Players Era event — four women’s teams and 18 men’s teams — will earn $1 million dollars in NIL funds for fulfilling their event obligations, including two games.
“I never thought it would be like this,” Texas point guard Rori Harmon said. “Us players are super grateful. Honestly, we want to play hard to win, obviously, but you throw a little bit of money in there, that’s fun too.”
Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer speaks with the officials in the first quarter as the Longhorns take on the Richmond Spiders at the Moody Center in Austin, Nov. 7, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Will events with NIL ties keep appearing on Texas’ schedule?
The specific details for the Longhorns’ $1 million payday aren’t clear. While arguing a need to protect information that, if released, “would harm UT Austin’s ability to compete with other colleges and universities,” the University of Texas redacted portions of the UT program’s Players Era contract that the American-Statesman sought through an open records request.
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According to a report by CBS Sports, event organizers will pay teams through either a school’s collective, NIL deals with athletes or direct payments to schools that want to distribute that cash through revenue sharing. Schaefer has shared that his players will get all of the money and that the Longhorns do have off-court event obligations while in Las Vegas. Texas also has committed to participating in the 2026 and 2027 Players Era showcases.
“(It) still is uncomfortable coming out of my mouth talking to recruits, talking to our players about money,” said the 64-year-old Schaefer, who’s in his sixth season at Texas and his 21st as a college head coach. “Five years and before, that was just so illegal and we would never approach that. At some point in the process, it becomes part of the process.”
MORE: Texas senior Sarah Graves learns about the business of sports, too
Last year, Texas participated in its first NIL-benefiting showcase when it traveled to New Jersey and played Maryland at the Coretta Scott King Classic. Schaefer said the Longhorns’ reunion with Baylor at next month’s Sprouts Farmers Market ESPNW Invitational in Fort Worth is also an NIL deal.
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In the past, Texas has traveled to early-season tournaments in The Bahamas, the Virgin Islands and Florida’s Gulf Coast. The destination, though, is the prize for those showcases. And the beach may not be as appealing in the NIL era.
“I think your basic tournaments where you go and play two, three games and hang out for a few days, those are going to get fewer and farther between,” Schaefer said earlier this year. “I think if people are going to want to get good teams to come play, they’re going to have to have an NIL component and there are lots of events now happening that way.
“My dilemma is I’ve got a fan base now that we’ve kind of created that wants to see us here at home as much as we can be, and they also want me to schedule a nonconference team or two. … It becomes problematic in that I need to cater to my fan base and my season ticket-holders and play some good folks here, and yet it’s hard for me to turn down significant opportunities for our kids with NIL.”
Texas Longhorns guard Rori Harmon (3) during the NCAA semi-final game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Friday April 4, 2025.
Sara Diggins/American-Statesman
Texas not worried about strength of this week’s schedule
While the $1 million is nice, the Longhorns aren’t undervaluing the experience that they’ll gain this week. Texas has opened this season with five wins by an average victory margin of 53.6 points. Richmond and James Madison teams that UT beat by 85-56 and 95-56 scores are potential NCAA Tournament qualifiers, but the Longhorns have yet to play anyone from a Power Four conference. That changes Wednesday.
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UCLA is also undefeated with wins over then-No. 6 Oklahoma and North Carolina. The Bruins are led by All-American center Lauren Betts and transfer guard Gianna Kneepkens, who was recruited heavily by Texas in the offseason.
When Texas was originally recruited by Players Era organizers, it signed up to play three games. The Longhorns will instead play just twice, but that second game will either be against a South Carolina team that went 3-1 against Texas last season or a Duke program that’s picked to win the Atlanta Coast Conference championship this winter.
With a good week in Las Vegas, Texas will be seen as a certified championship contender. But could a bad weekend cost the Longhorns down the road? Last week, ESPN writer Charlie Creme floated the idea of a 0-for-2 Players Era performance eventually preventing a team from gaining a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament (last year, no No. 1 seed entered the tournament with more than three losses).
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Schaefer, though, scoffed at that.
“There’s a lot of basketball to be played this year. I don’t think two games in November are going to affect anybody,” he said. “What’s going to matter is how you’re playing down the stretch and how you do in conference.”