Gonzaga's Drew Timme re-signs NIL deal with furniture store

Drew Timme could have turned pro following Gonzaga‘s Sweet 16 exit this past spring.

But instead, he opted to return to for another season and cash in on his NIL. He’s now starting to reap those benefits.

The 6-foot-10, 235-pound center announced on Instagram on Sunday he has re-signed with Walker’s Furniture for another season. The family-owned company has multiple locations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Timme signed on with the furniture store in the first year of the Name, Image and Likeness Era, and he’s back for a second season.

“I’m excited to team up with Walker’s Furniture for a second year, to help more people and give away more prizes,” he wrote on Instagram. “Look out for a season of giveaways including the end of the season grand prize.”

The Team Up with Timme campaign kicked off a year ago and features prizes and giveaways. Earlier this offseason, the Gonzaga star told FOX Sports his NIL profits would outweigh what he would make if he had entered the 2022 NBA Draft.

In the interview, Timme estimated he would have made roughly $200,000 to $500,000 in the league. He’s instead back for another season with Mark Few, and set to make more cash. It’s part of a growing trend in college basketball of big men returning to college instead of joining the NBA ranks.

Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson are each doing it, too.

“I think NIL played a factor with all of us,” Dickinson told On3’s Andy Wittry back in June. “Being able to not have to worry about money but also being able to play college basketball, I think, was the best of both worlds for a lot of us.”

Tshiebwe’s had to jump a few more hurdles, though. From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his current student visa explicitly bars him from working while studying and playing in the U.S., along with other international student-athletes. When the Wildcats went to the Bahamas this summer, Tshiebwe’s schedule was been filled with filming commercials and signing autographs.

Drew Timme’s massive On3 NIL Valuation

Timme averaged 18.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game a season ago. And entering this season, Gonzaga is expected to contend for a national title yet again.

The center also holds a massive On3 NIL Valuation of $912,000. The evaluation ranks No. 27 in the NIL 100 and No. 4 among college basketball players.

With his infamous mustache and on-court play, he’s also built a notable social media following of 111,000. His per-post value currently sits at $2,200.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.