Big Ten disputes Duke’s Amazon deal for Michigan matchup

The Big Ten believes it owns the media rights to one of Duke’s newly announced games on Amazon Prime Video.

Duke recently announced an agreement with Amazon Prime Video to allow the streaming service to air three neutral-site games featuring Duke: against UConn on Nov. 25 in Las Vegas, against Michigan on Dec. 21 in New York, and against Gonzaga on Feb. 20 in Detroit.

However, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the Big Ten believes it controls the rights to sell the Duke-Michigan game.

Reportedly, the Big Ten and ACC struck a deal in previous years to alternate control of media rights for neutral-site games played in “shared territory,” including New York City. Despite Prime Video not being an ACC rights partner, Duke worked with the ACC and its primary rights partner, ESPN, to gain approval for the deal. Duke has agreed to play in ESPN-controlled non-conference events in the 2027–28 and 2028–29 seasons.

Duke and Michigan played a non-conference game in Washington, D.C., last year, which aired on ESPN. That game was ESPN’s most watched college basketball game in seven years. According to Dellenger, the game was played in exchange for a Duke–Illinois non-conference matchup that aired on Fox the previous season.

While this dispute is chiefly about the nuances of neutral-site non-conference college basketball games, it is worth noting that the Big Ten has prevented a similar agreement with a streaming service before. Last year, John Ourand of Puck reported that USC attempted to sell a neutral-site college football game against Notre Dame to Netflix. But the Big Ten rejected the plan because teams are not allowed to sell individual rights to non-conference games, which appears to be exactly what Duke is doing here.

The Big Ten’s primary rights holder is Fox Sports (which officially sublicenses games to other partners like NBC and CBS) and the company is reportedly involved in this dispute.

The next step in this disagreement is currently unclear, and no legal action has been taken yet. Duke–Michigan is likely to be a marquee game, so giving Fox a cut of the revenue might not be enough to end the dispute.

This first-of-its-kind agreement still has some kinks to be worked out.