Times are changing in college sports and it continues to evolve and change through the era of NIL and the transfer portal.

As a sign of that change, Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide will be competing in their first NIL-based Thanksgiving tournament in Las Vegas.

Oats would normally have his team compete in some sort of non-conference tournament during that time of year, but the NIL setup is entirely new.

All eight teams competing in the event will be awarded a combined NIL prize of $1 million each, with the tournament winner potentially up for grabs even more, according to CBS Sports.

Other participating schools include the University of Houston, University of Notre Dame, University of Oregon, Rutgers University, San Diego State University and Texas A&M University, with an eighth team to be decided at the end.

The event's goal is to double the number of spots from eight to 16, with the goal of expanding by 2025.

CBS said because many of the schools competing in the tournament have multi-year contracts, the 16-team field will include several schools from the eight-team field, but it's unclear which teams those will be.

Michael Browner is a senior sports analyst and contributor to Yellow Hammer News. You can follow him on Twitter. translation: