Sanogo had to leave college because he was ineligible to make NIL money at UConn due to stupid NCAA rules. As soon as he left he signed a deal with Sunoco for a million dollars (plus or minus).
The NBA portion of his two-way deal would be worth (about) 2 million dollars if he plays a certain number of games (which he hasn't). His G-league salary is reportly worth 50-100 thousand. He probably got some sort of bonus for his brief promotion to the NBA. He also gets per diem and other perks that don't amount to much.
Still his Sunoco deal is nothing to sense at and he wouldn't have it if he was still in school.
While it’s true he did it after the season finished, NIL rules had nothing to do with that. He could have done that deal and came back if he decided that’s what he wanted to do…
The issue for international students is their visas prohibit them from “actively” earning money in the US while there are here on student visas.
A number of international students get around this by doing their NIL stuff off shores (which if you remember the photo shoot associated with the Sunoco deal it was shot in the Caribbean).
For example, before last season Kentucky took a trip to the Bahamas in the summer so Oscar Tsibwe could do a bunch of NIL deals.
Guys can also make passive money, for example, jersey sales. But they aren’t allowed to even promote their own jersey sales on their social media because then it would be considered “work”.
Surprisingly, for once it isn’t the NCAA causing the issues when it comes to NIL restrictions for international students.