When Arizona men's basketball knocked off six high-level opponents during a memorable nonconference season that will wrap up Monday, nearly all the highlights happened away from McKale Center.
While the Wildcats did host and blow out Auburn on Dec. 6 at their campus arena — and vault toward the No. 1 ranking when they won at UConn on Nov. 19 — their high-paying neutral-court games showcased most of the action.
Collecting at least $675,000 for their four neutral-site games this season, the Wildcats were the talk of college basketball’s opening night when they beat defending national champion Florida in Las Vegas. They edged UCLA at a futuristic dome just east of the Los Angeles airport. They defeated Alabama not on its Tuscaloosa campus but at a convention center arena in downtown Birmingham.
Arizona guard Jaden Bradley, left, and forward Koa Peat celebrate as they defeat UCLA in a Hall of Fame Series game, Nov. 14, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif.
And they played San Diego State not at McKale but at the downtown Phoenix arena that has had seven different names since its opening in 1992.
“It's extra special when you can bring it home for your home fans,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said before the Wildcats hosted Auburn earlier this month. “I know our home fans yearn for these types of matchups. They’re just not easy to put together. In this day and age, in college basketball, it's just not as easy as it would seem.”
At least some of that complication involves the need for money. Hardly alone in chasing well-paying neutral-site games at a time when schools have begun paying players, Arizona essentially earned enough from its four neutral site games to offset the collective $750,000 it paid seven other mid- or low-major teams for playing one-time "buy" games at McKale Center.
Arizona is to receive a guaranteed $200,000 each for the Florida, UCLA and San Diego State games, according to contracts obtained by the Star via a public-records request.
The promoter of those games, Position Sports, also agreed to pay UA 10% of net ticket sales revenue between $800,000 and $1.2 million for the Florida and SDSU games, plus 33.3% of ticket revenue between $1 million and $1.3 million for UCLA — meaning a maximum of up to $180,000 extra.
What’s more, UA was also allowed to sell sponsorships for those three games up to $1 million, and receive a 20% commission for them — meaning up to another $200,000. (Ticket and sponsorship revenue, if any, was not included when the contracts were provided to the Star earlier this month.)
In addition, Arizona was scheduled to receive $75,000 for its Dec. 13 semi-neutral game with Alabama, which was the second game of a semi-neutral series that began when the Wildcats and Crimson Tide played in Phoenix during the 2023-24 season.
The total of at least $675,000 received this season compares to the $725,000 Arizona pulled in during the 2023-24 season when it faced Michigan State, Alabama, Purdue and FAU on neutral courts instead of earning a much smaller sum to participate in a traditional multi-team event.
Meanwhile, the UA women's team paid out a total of $291,000 this season for its 11 regular-season nonconference and two exhibition home games but did not play away from McKale.
With the men’s games, the UA-UCLA situation was somewhat unclear. A request for its UCLA men's basketball game contract returned two documents: A May 2024 contract in which the UCLA game was referred to as the second in a three-year series with the Bruins that would pay UA a flat $450,000, and a May 2025 contract that listed the UCLA game in part of the Florida and San Diego State trio, and said Arizona would be paid $200,000 plus ticket and sponsorship revenue for that game. (A request to UA for clarification was declined.)
Arizona center Motiejus Krivas (13) finishes off his drive through the heart of the Saint Mary's defense with a two-hand slam during the second half of their exhibition game, Oct. 18, 2025, in Tucson.
In all, Arizona earned at least $675,000 and paid out just over $800,000 for its home nonconference games, including exhibitions against Saint Mary’s ($50,000) and Embry-Riddle ($9,900). It did not pay Auburn anything, since that was part of a two-year deal in which UA will play at Auburn next season.
The Wildcats’ one-time home nonconference opponents were paid between $90,000 and $125,000 each, and the funds are often critical for mid- or low-major programs who must help support the rest of their athletic departments. But sometimes the better teams in that category have trouble securing deals, or must accept less money, because hosting teams fear losing to them.
With a team that has reached three of the past six NCAA Tournaments, Norfolk State coach Robert Jones told the Star in November that his Spartans had “to jump at the chance” to get in Arizona’s multi-team event over Thanksgiving, for which UA paid a promoter a total of $235,000 to host Norfolk State and Denver (the contract did not specify how that total would be divided between Denver and Norfolk State).
“With the success that we've had recently, I can't tell you that people are knocking down our doors to play us right now,” Jones said. “We’re trying to bridge that financial gap. We gotta play teams that are willing to play us.”
Denver (265 in Kenpom rankings) and Bethune-Cookman (262) are the lowest-rated schools on UA’s schedule. Yet Bethune-Cookman received the most generous payout from UA ($125,000) while South Dakota State, a perennial Summit League contender that is the highest-ranked “buy game” opponent at 187, will receive just $105,000 for Monday's nonconference finale at McKale.
On the women’s side, Arizona is paying between $25,000 (Eastern Kentucky) and $40,000 (Southern) for its home nonconference opponents plus another $18,500 for two exhibition games: West Texas A&M ($10,000) and Cal State L.A ($8,500).
Arizona guard Tanyuel Welch (11), Northern Arizona guard Madison Watts (3), Northern Arizona forward Emma Dasovich (0) and Arizona forward Daniah Trammell (33) reach for a rebound in the first half during a game at McKale Center in Tucson on Nov. 19, 2025.
While the UA women’s team did not earn any revenue from road or neutral games, Arizona didn’t have to pay NAU anything as per their longterm 2021 contract. UA also didn’t pay Chicago State or New Mexico anything because those games were part of two-year home-and-home contracts in which UA visited Chicago last season and will visit New Mexico next season.
All women's basketball nonconference games except those against NAU and Chicago State, and the two exhibition games, were formally agreed to and signed after UA hired Becky Burke to take over the Wildcats in April, according to game contracts received by the Star. All of the men's contracts were executed after Lloyd was hired in April 2021.
