Duke may be the only men’s basketball school that could pull off the Amazon deal — for now.
Amazon isn’t just televising three Duke nonconference games, but the streaming giant also cut a brand deal with the university.
Here’s what was said when Duke released the news last week:
“It’s exciting to bring this relationship with Duke University to life, and we’re looking forward to presenting this premium college basketball showcase to fans around the world next season and beyond,” said Charlie Neiman, Head of Sports Partnerships, Prime Video. “Duke basketball games transcend the schedule, and the creation of this all-new offering gives fans more of what we all want, marquee matchups featuring the most successful programs in the nation.”
“In addition to our outstanding partnership with ESPN, we are excited to work with Prime Video on this groundbreaking initiative,” Duke athletics director Nina King said. “As Prime Video’s first college sports partner, this collaboration not only expands the global reach of Duke Men’s Basketball, but also creates meaningful opportunities for our student-athletes in a way that reflects innovation and excellence.”
Let’s deal with the three games first.
Duke’s television rights, like all ACC schools, are owned by ESPN if Duke plays a game in an ACC footprint or, obviously, at home.
But it gets complicated when the nonconference game is in a shared territory with its opponent.
The scheduled nonconference game against UConn in Las Vegas on Nov. 25 is fine since neither the ACC or the Big East have rights in Las Vegas. That frees up that game to be televised by another network.
The game against Gonzaga in Detroit on Feb. 20 falls into the same category. Neither the ACC or the new Pac-12 have rights in Detroit since it’s not in the footprint of either conference.
Where it gets dicey is in New York. The Big East, the ACC, the Big Ten and the A-10 can all claim a shared territory with games in New York.
The game against Michigan at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 21 is an issue and one that still hasn’t been completely worked out with all parties.
Last year’s game against Michigan in Washington, D.C., was on ESPN. Washington is a shared territory for the Big Ten (Maryland) and the ACC (Virginia). The Big East and A-10 also can claim D.C. if one of their teams are involved, too.
The previous year, Duke played Illinois at MSG on FOX, a Big Ten network partner. So networks like FOX and ESPN will work out an alternating shared partnership, and in this case, since the Illinois-Duke game was on FOX, that meant the next season the Duke-Michigan game was going to be on ESPN.
But the MSG game with Michigan this year isn’t on ESPN, FOX, or other Big Ten partners CBS or NBC. So this is still a TBD to make sure it’s cool for this particular game to be on Amazon Prime. Duke did agree with ESPN to have the network set up nonconference games in each of the next two seasons (2027-28 and 2028-29) that ESPN would own and operate.
Duke is scheduled to be in the Jimmy V Classic next season two weeks prior to the Michigan game in the same building.
The reason Duke has the flexibility to pull this off is this: Duke plays at 9,314-seat Cameron Indoor Stadium. That means the Blue Devils don’t make a slush fund of money on home games. Duke can afford to give up home games for major paydays at neutral sites.
That’s not the case with North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky, three other blue bloods that do make money and need to do so when they play at home.
Seth's Updated Never-Too-Early Preseason Top 25
May 3: In light of recent transfer portal news, Seth Davis updates his early Top 25 NCAA rankings for the 2026-27 college hoops season. Key recruit signings mean jumps for Kansas and Louisville.
Amazon was likely only going to approach a blue blood if they were going to do anything like this in the college space. And Duke has the brand value, the flexibility in its scheduling and the leverage to get a deal like this done.
Duke is always ratings gold. Duke can promise it will have a title contender. And Duke can deliver matchups against high-profile teams. And Duke did go to ESPN and work out a deal to play big-time games on the network in future years (like they have done in the past).
Duke is in an exclusive class of teams that don’t need to and at this point aren’t choosing to be in a multiple-team event.
UConn, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan State have also chosen to go in that direction. They all want to be able to control all of the games on their schedule and not leave it up to a third party to decide.
Kansas could easily be in the category above but has chosen to still play in tournaments (Players Era last year and deciding to do so again in 2026).
UCLA has started to move in this direction, as well. The Bruins, under Mick Cronin, aren’t interested in nonconference games out of the Pacific time zone (see pulling out of the rotating CBS Sports Classic).
Kansas replaced UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic single-game event rotation after St. John’s was in UCLA’s spot for one season last December.
St. John’s would have loved to stay in the CBS Sports Classic. But guess where next season’s event is located? Madison Square Garden. That’s a Big East territory and if St. John’s was the home team, that could have been an issue for FOX. So, the Red Storm are out.
And while network executives may not love the idea of these schools going off on their own to create games, they do at least guarantee high-level contests for the nonconference schedule. Who ends up televising each one is an issue that may not be going away if Amazon and possibly Netflix start to get into this space.
NBA Combine list
The most intriguing names on the invited NBA Draft Combine list (May 10-14) are:
Ruben Chinyelu, Florida: Chinyelu is certainly talented enough to be in the first round. He’s the reigning National Defensive Player of the Year. If he comes back, the Gators will have the best frontcourt in the country with Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon. If he leaves, the Gators will be missing a rim protector and top defender.
Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State: Fears is hardly a lock for the first round and likely would return to the Spartans. There is no replacement for him if he were to decide to stay in the draft. The Spartans desperately need him to come back if they are going to be a Big Ten title contender.
Allen Graves, Santa Clara: Graves is quietly one of the hidden gems in this group and could end up drawing high dollars if he were to land back in college at a new destination out of the portal.
Juke Harris, Wake Forest: Update: The number one player on Hoops HQ’s transfer ranking has committed to Tennessee and intends to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft.
Morez Johnson Jr., Michigan: Johnson is a lock for the first round. But could he be enticed to return for a chance to go after another national title? Possibly. And that would be a game changer for Michigan.
Andrej Stojakovic, Illinois: All indications from Champaign are that he will be back with the Illini in a quest to get back to the Final Four. If he does get the NBA itch, it will hurt Illinois — but the sting may have been eased with the addition of Providence’s Stefan Vaaks.
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt: Tanner will likely return to the Commodores, giving them a possible SEC Player of the Year. Tanner could be a first-team All-American. But if he were to hear he’s a mid-first round pick, could that change? I still doubt it.
Arizona’s Koa Peat and Washington’s Hannes Steinbach: Peat and Steinbach aren’t in the portal and they could each go back to their respective schools. But that would be a major upset. If they did, the Wildcats get back a possible Big 12 Player of the Year while the Huskies would have one of the best in the Big Ten back if Steinbach shocks the NBA Draft.
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