The Duke Blue Devils have struck a deal with Amazon that will probably make them a lot of money and definitely make a lot of fans angry.
According to ESPN's Jeff Borzello and Pete Thamel, the Duke basketball program have agreed to an exclusive rights partnership with Amazon that will see three massive games broadcast on Prime Video next season. The games are their November 25 game against UConn in Las Vegas, the December 21 game against defending national champion Michigan at Madison Square Garden, and their February 20 game against Gonzaga in Detroit.
Duke will now play three neutral site games per year exclusively on Prime Video. Per the report, the partnership will mark Amazon's first broadcast of live college sports.
"The deal will include extensive NIL opportunities for Duke athletics and is part of a broader retail partnership expected to be announced at a later date," Borzello and Thamel reported.
"While a significant move for Duke, the agreement also represents Amazon's first foray into broadcasting live college sports. Prime Video has televised select NFL games since the 2017 season, including the exclusive rights to 'Thursday Night Football' through 2033. The streaming service also began an 11-year media rights agreement with the NBA this season."
That said, the ACC and ESPN aren't giving those games away for free. Borzello noted that Duke worked with both entities on future scheduling commitments that were agreeable to all of them, including a few ESPN owned and operated neutral site events in future years.
"Duke worked with the ACC and ESPN on future scheduling commitments in exchange for the ability to play these three neutral-site games, including participating in select ESPN owned and operated neutral-site events in the 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons," Borzello wrote on X.
Backlash
As you might expect, fans weren't exactly thrilled about the idea of there being even further division of top college games onto separate subscription services. On top of hating the move on principle, fans questioned how Duke could even be allowed to do such a thing:
"Now we know how they were able to assemble one of the greatest teams on paper of all time. Their NIL this year is like 30 mil," one user mocked on X.
"High major college basketball is getting lamer and lamer everyday," wrote another.
"Do I like this? No, but Duke is thinking outside the box so I guess credit for that. But this is only possible for neutral site games I imagine? Just another reason we will see more neutrals, sad to say," a third wrote.
"They make it so hard to watch your teams now. Villanova was on at least 3 different paid networks last year."
"The landscape is truly changing man. College Hoops is becoming more and more like the NBA. If they go to 4 quarters and a 24 sec shot clock, we won’t know the difference soon."
"Someone explain to me how Duke gets to sell the rights to UConn on a neutral site game?"
"Death of college basketball. Sad."
The sports landscape is changing and unfortunately fans will either have to change with it or have to find something else to watch.
