South Carolina Set for UCLA Championship Rematch, Notre Dame at Players Era Showcase
South Carolina’s opponents for the 2026 Players Era Showcase in Las Vegas are now official, and the slate delivers a heavyweight matchup right out of the gate. Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks will play UCLA on Saturday, December 19, followed by Notre Dame on Sunday, December 20 — a schedule Staley called an exciting return to the event, saying, “We are excited to be back for the second year of the Players Era Women’s Championship with an expanded field. From elite matchups on the court to great accommodations and opportunities for our team and our fans off it, it will be great to get back to Las Vegas and a full weekend highlighting women’s basketball.”
The UCLA matchup carries obvious emotional weight. It marks a rematch of the 2026 national championship game, where the Bruins routed South Carolina 79-51 in Phoenix — a game in which the Gamecocks shot just 29% from the floor, the third-lowest field goal percentage in a women’s title game since the tournament adopted its current format in 1982. The Notre Dame matchup, meanwhile, continues a series South Carolina leads 3-3 all-time, including a lopsided 100-71 win the last time the two teams met, in Paris back in 2023.
This year’s Players Era field expands beyond South Carolina’s two games, also featuring Texas, Duke, and Southern Cal, with the full slate played at Michelob ULTRA Arena. The event’s financial scale is notable too — organizers describe the seven-figure NIL pool tied to the tournament as “one of the largest in women’s college sports history.”
South Carolina isn’t new to the event. The Gamecocks played in the inaugural women’s Players Era last year, beating Duke 83-66 before falling to Texas 66-64 in the championship game. Staley’s program is already locked in for a return in 2027 as well, per a contract previously obtained by The State.
The Players Era stop is just one piece of an especially demanding non-conference slate for South Carolina this season, which also includes matchups against North Carolina, Southern Cal, and UConn through various neutral-site and multi-team events — kicking off with the regular-season opener against Maryland in Paris on November 2 as part of the Oui Play event.
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