A disagreement regarding broadcasting rights is surfacing concerning Duke University’s significant three-game streaming deal with Amazon.
The Big Ten conference has informed both the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN that it asserts ownership over the broadcasting rights for the upcoming neutral-venue basketball match between Duke and Michigan, slated for Madison Square Garden next season and intended for Amazon’s streaming platform.
Duke, in conjunction with the ACC and its television partner ESPN, forged this unprecedented arrangement, committing to future fixture obligations in return for three specific games: facing Michigan on December 21st in New York, UConn on November 25th in Las Vegas, and Gonzaga on February 20th in Detroit.
Nonetheless, a contention exists concerning which broadcasting entity possesses the entitlements to one of these contests.
The Big Ten, supported by its principal broadcast partner, Fox, has engaged with both the ACC and ESPN concerning this issue. The conference maintains that it holds the broadcasting entitlements as stipulated by an accord between the participating leagues.
Under a prior agreement between the two networks, the Big Ten and ACC rights holders had consented to alternate the broadcasting privileges for neutral-site games involving their respective teams played in mutually recognized areas, like New York City. In correspondence dispatched to ACC executives and ESPN on Thursday, Big Ten representatives articulated that the Duke-Michigan encounter falls under their purview, given that the ACC’s associate, ESPN, acquired the rights to the previous season’s Duke-Michigan game held in Washington, D.C. — another common ground for both conferences.
The Duke-Michigan event in Washington served as a reciprocal fixture for the Duke-Illinois game broadcast on Fox in the preceding season.
According to sources at Yahoo Sports, ESPN and the ACC support Duke’s decision to license the game to Amazon. Nevertheless, despite ESPN granting Duke permission to proceed with Amazon, Duke bore the obligation of arranging the opposing team. When contests occur in “shared territories,” it is conventionally the duty of the opposing team (Michigan, in this instance) to address any rights complications with its own conference and associated rights holder.
Representatives from the Big Ten, ACC, Fox, and ESPN all refused to provide statements when contacted by Yahoo Sports. Officials from Duke and Michigan also chose not to comment. An Amazon spokesperson did not reply to a request for a statement.
The path forward to resolve the entitlements dispute remains uncertain.
The declaration made by ESPN and Amazon on Thursday encountered immediate resistance from the Big Ten and its main rights proprietor. Big Ten executives had knowledge of the discussions between Duke and Michigan and had previously warned about their claim to such a game.
Duke’s trio of games broadcast via Amazon is regarded by many as a pivotal development. Multi-billion dollar streaming corporations are showing keen interest in collegiate sports assets that have historically been under the domain of conventional television broadcasters.
Concurrently, educational institutions such as Duke are encouraged to pursue lucrative, singular agreements of this nature to enhance their team’s value through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) arrangements for athletes who promote these contests.
Nonetheless, major rights proprietors like ESPN (for the ACC) and Fox (for the Big Ten) need to sanction these types of arrangements — a contentious issue with these broadcasting giants. High-profile games are crucial to their conference contracts, encompassing non-conference matches hosted at the home venues of the rights holder’s affiliated institutions.
As an illustration, the University of Southern California considered moving its 2026 rivalry contest versus Notre Dame to Netflix as a strategy to commercialize the event, prior to the intervention of the Big Ten and its network associates. Consequently, the Fighting Irish and Trojans opted to suspend their ongoing series.
