Gonzaga ranks among college basketball’s biggest NBA money-makers

Playing for Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs not only provides a real opportunity to make it to the NBA, but it also helps make sure players stick around once they get there.

A recent post from College Basketball Report indicates Gonzaga had the third most NBA earnings among all college basketball programs this past year, with 13 former NBA Zags taking home a combined $174,275,925 dollars. That ranks a distant third behind Kentucky’s ridiculous $629M in earnings and Duke’s $379M.

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Gonzaga is on an island in third place, over $200M behind Duke but nearly $45M ahead of fourth-place Arizona, which comes in at $129.3M in earnings.

Rounding out the top ten are Kansas, Florida State, Villanova, Michigan State, Michigan, and Texas, with USC, UCLA, and Washington all in the top 20.

While many of the programs on this list are buoyed by one or two extremely high earners – including Pac-12 opponents Fresno State and San Diego State, who are effectively only on here because of Paul Georgia and Kawhi Leonard, respectively – Gonzaga has quite a few players earning big bucks while on their second, or third, NBA contract.

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The Zags are led by three-time All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis, who took home just north of $42 million last year with the Sacramento Kings. Sabonis is one of five Zags who earned over $18 million in the 2025-26 season, alongside Orlando’s Jalen Suggs ($35M), LA’s Rui Hachimura ($18.2M), Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard ($18.1M), and Chicago’s Zach Collins ($18.1M).

Corey Kispert ($13.9M), Chet Holmgren ($13.7M), Kelly Olynyk ($13.4M), and Brandon Clarke ($12.5) were Gonzaga’s four other earners over $10M last season. Both Collins and Olynyk are set to hit free agency, where they are likely to earn significantly less next year, while Clarke’s tragic passing last month alters this data going forward as well.

However, Holmgren is due for a massive raise to up over $40M as his second contract kicks in, which will keep the Zags in the conversation among the…


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Publish date : 2026-06-10 21:10:00

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