Gonzaga’s place in college basketball’s NIL race looks a lot different than it used to.
For years, the Bulldogs were the program that punched above its weight - no football money, no home in one of the sport’s power leagues, and not many five-star recruits, yet still a near-constant threat to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament and even twice climb all the way to the national championship game. That image still lingers, but the financial reality has changed.
Gonzaga is no longer just trying to keep up. It’s spending like a contender.
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports spent months digging into the NIL landscape across high-major college basketball programs, plus Gonzaga, and placed teams into seven tiers based on estimated spending. The Zags came out in Tier 3, with an estimated NIL budget of between $15.1 million and $17.5 million for the 2026-27 season.
That puts Gonzaga in company with Arizona, Houston, Michigan State, Miami, LSU, Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, and USC.
Norlander also noted that Gonzaga - along with Ole Miss and Oklahoma - has a sizable chunk of its money tied up in the five-for-five market. That tracks with the roster situation, especially given that three of the team’s 15 players, Xaivian Lee, Javon Bennett, and Chauncey Wiggins, are all fighting the NCAA for eligibility this season and, as the reporting indicates, would have required hefty paydays for 2026-27.
Even with a much smaller enrollment and alumni base than most power-conference schools, Gonzaga has one major financial edge: it receives a full media rights share from the Pac-12 despite not having a football program. The exact figure from that deal isn’t public, but it’s estimated at between $7 million and $10 million annually, and Gonzaga is expected to funnel most of that toward men’s basketball.
Add in a few major donors, and the Bulldogs suddenly have real muscle.
That kind of backing helps explain how coach Mark Few has been able to keep players he wants to keep. Huff and Fogle apparently weren’t cheap to retain for this coming season, and Massamba Diop - who was arguably a top-three center in the transfer portal - is believed to have commanded roughly $5 million by himself.
Put all of that together, and Gonzaga’s placement in the $15.1 million to $17.5 million range makes sense. The school may still look different from the sport’s traditional giants, but the spending says it belongs in the same financial neighborhood.
Norlander’s research did not include the rest of the Pac-12, though it’s safe to say Gonzaga outspends everyone else in the league by a wide margin.
It also outspends plenty of nonconference foes. UCLA, Creighton, and Oregon were estimated at $12 million to $15 million; Purdue at $7 million to $10 million; and Kansas State at $5 million to $7 million.
Gonzaga’s next opponent in that category is Arkansas, which it will face in an exhibition game on Saturday at 1:00 PM PT. The Razorbacks are in Tier 2 at just under $20 million, while Duke is one of 11 teams estimated to have spent more than $20 million on this year’s roster.
In Other News...
Gonzaga Just Got A Frontcourt Boost Fans Have Waited For
Gonzaga finally has a clearer picture in the frontcourt with Izan Almansa officially cleared by the NCAA to suit up for the Bulldogs. The 21-year-old forward from Spain arrives with a resume that is anything but ordinary, having spent time with NBA G League Ignite, Australias NBL and Real Madrid before landing in Spokane, and he now brings three seasons of college eligibility with him.
For a Gonzaga team that has been waiting to see how he fits into the rotation, the next step comes quickly with an upcoming exhibition against Arkansas. Almansa is expected to join the roster for that game in Fayetteville, giving the Bulldogs another option up front and adding some intrigue to a preseason stretch that has already featured a few roster-related delays. [Read more 🡒]
Gonzagas Arkansas Exhibition Could Reveal What Mark Few Really Has
The build toward Gonzagas 2026-27 roster is starting to look more tangible, and the exhibition against Arkansas should offer an early read on how the pieces fit. Javon Bennett and Xaivian Lee are part of the conversation as the Bulldogs sort through backcourt roles, while the frontcourt picture also includes Izan Almansa and Chauncey Wiggins, two additions who give Mark Few more size, skill and lineup flexibility than he had a year ago. Even in a scrimmage setting, this is the kind of matchup that can tell a lot about how much offense the Bulldogs can create and how far their defensive ceiling might rise against a quality opponent.
The bigger question is not just who is on the floor, but how Gonzaga chooses to use them. The staff is weighing shooting improvement, positional combinations and which groups can hold up when the opposition gets physical and the pace changes, and Arkansas should pressure those ideas right away. For a team trying to define its next version, this is the sort of early test that can expose whether the roster has the balance to score efficiently and defend well enough when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]