Yeah people probably don't think of Houston as being a top5 market. Everyone knows the big three.. It's NY, LA, and Chicago. But Houston is right there at 4th in population size, and after googling it, it's closer to Chicago than it is to #5 (Phoenix). I wouldn't be shocked if Houston were to take over Chicago as the 3rd largest city.
All that is to say, there's a lot of money in Houston, and not a whole lot of great basketball to demand attention or NIL (as opposed to the amount of great football programs there are).. so I could easily see a pretty storied basketball program like the Houston Cougars gobbling up a lot of NIL.