How new NCAA eligibility rules could impact Gonzaga’s Izan Almansa

For over 20 years, Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs have heavily relied on international stars to build top-tier college basketball rosters - a trend that has caught up to the rest of the sport in recent years.

And with the explosion in NIL opportunity for European players, it's no surprise programs like Illinois, Arizona, and others have been leveraging connections overseas to remain competitive while the transfer portal ravages rosters each offseason.

Gonzaga - often through current Arizona head coach and former Zag assistant Tommy Lloyd - built connections all over Europe, Canada, and Asia, landing tremendously talented players like Ronny Turiaf, Kevin Pangos, Domantas Sabonis, Filip Petrusev, Killian Tillie, Elias Harris, and Kelly Olynyk, which has been a key part of this program's success under coach Few.

However, the 'wild wild west' era of college basketball has allowed teams to seemingly sign anyone, regardless of age or previous playing experience, which has created a chaotic environment. The most notable example is what has happened at LSU, which recently agreed to deals with former St. John's guard and G-Leaguer RJ Luis, 25-year-old former 2020 NBA draft pick Yam Madar, 2025 NBA draft pick Saliou Niang, and 23-year-old EuroLeague pros Marcio Santos and Brice Dessert.

The NCAA is trying to put its foot down on this issue, with new guidelines sent out to teams earlier this month that intend to heavily limit the number of international players that can come stateside in college athletics.

According to Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated, this guidance states that prospects who entered "an agreement with, competed on, or received compensation from a team that participates in a league with a minimum compensation that exceeds actual and necessary expenses will not have their eligibility reinstated."

New guidance issued by the NCAA to schools earlier this month opens the door for a crackdown on the tidal wave of international pros hoping to head to college basketball. Players from top leagues could face added scrutiny.

Statement from NCAA enclosed: https://t.co/whdbVQvLCu
— Kevin Sweeney (@CBB_Central) May 21, 2026

Actual and necessary expenses are the key phrase here, and as is typical with NCAA guidelines, it is very vague. Sweeney obtained a statement by an NCAA spokesperson which said, in part, that "actual and necessary expenses continue to be a factor in a prospect's eligibility...the NCAA also identified several international leagues in which participation by a prospect is likely to result in violations of NCAA rules and a loss of eligibility."

"The Association is modernizing the rule book in several ways to ensure college sports are played by college athletes and not used as a fallback for professional athletes."

How does this impact Gonzaga?

It's unclear how exactly the NCAA is going to go about targeting European pros. It's fair to assume any player from the EuroLeague, which has a minimum salary of roughly $58,000, will have trouble getting eligibility, while players from leagues like the Bundesliga in Germany and others will likely encounter the same issues.

It's hard to imagine this would impact current student-athletes, like Mario Saint-Supery and Massamba Diop, but it is expected to cause hiccups for players trying to sign stateside this offseason, like Real Madrid center Izan Almansa.

Almansa is playing in the EuroLeague currently with Real Madrid, and previous experience with the G League Ignite and even the Perth Wildcats could be above the threshold where the NCAA would want to prevent him from playing in college, even though he is just 20 years old as of this writing.

Jack Kayil - who kept his name in the NBA draft process rather than coming to Gonzaga - very likely would have a tough legal battle on his hands thanks to his play with Alba Berlin in the Bundesliga. In fact, it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that Kayil's decision to stay in the draft process was linked to these guidelines from the NCAA.

What's next?

The NCAA's decision to release these guidelines in the middle of the college basketball offseason - after many teams had built rosters around 1-2 international contributors - is ripe for challenging from a legal perspective.

If Arizona was allowed to play Ivan Kharchenkov last year - a 20-year-old who played in The Bundesliga in 2024-25 - then why on earth would Kayil, also a 20-year-old from The Bundesliga, not have eligibility this year?

The NCAA's best course of action here was to inform schools that this is going to be a hard and fast rule starting after the upcoming academic year, which would have grandfathered in current players rather than putting a bunch of rosters in flux in late May.

Of course, the legality of these moves will be challenged in courts, and it wouldn't be a surprise if Gonzaga lawyers up on behalf of Almansa to ensure the 6'10 big man can suit up behind Diop and Braden Huff next year in the Pac-12.

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