Why Duke basketball’s `innovative’ Amazon deal could reshape college sports media

Jon Scheyer hasn’t been afraid to shake things up since taking over the Duke men’s basketball program in 2022. He hired Rachel Baker as the first college hoops general manager and has since experimented with scheduling high-profile, neutral-site non-conference games in February.

So while the Blue Devils’ Amazon Prime Video partnership — an innovative agreement announced last week — may be shocking to some, Duke athletic director Nina King sees it as the latest example of Scheyer pushing the envelope.

“I mean, look, we’re all trying to monetize and create revenue,” King told the N&O. “We realized what a valuable asset and brand we have in Duke men’s basketball. We wanted to get creative and innovative…. I think (Scheyer) is really visionary in that way.”

At The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, the site of this week’s ACC Spring Meetings, Duke’s new agreement with Amazon is already being viewed as a possible preview of where media rights could be headed next.

The Blue Devils’ multiyear agreement marks Prime Video’s first college sports partnership. Prime Video will exclusively stream three marquee neutral-site men’s basketball games per season, beginning with 2026-27 matchups against UConn in Las Vegas, Michigan at Madison Square Garden and Gonzaga in Detroit.

The deal required approval from both the ACC and ESPN, which controls ACC media rights through the league’s Grant of Rights agreement. That structure traditionally leaves schools with little independent control over broadcasts, and the conference has strict regulations for nonconference scheduling for member schools. But because these games are neutral-site events — and therefore not part of Duke’s ACC inventory — conference and television executives found a pathway to make the package work.

As a sort of tradeoff, Duke men’s hoops will participate in additional ESPN-owned and operated neutral site events over the next three years.

“I’m not worried about (the deal), because ESPN was in every one of the conversations,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday. “So to Duke’s credit, they came up with something creative, and they brought it to ESPN and us.

“I’m happy for Duke,” Phillips later added. “It’s additional dollars into the conference — obviously it’s going to Duke. If there’s other opportunities that are out there that schools bring forward, we’ll look at it. I think it’s an innovative (move) by Duke.”

Duke’s deal a source of inspiration

The Blue Devils’ Amazon dealings have, unsurprisingly, sparked immediate conversation across college athletics. If Duke can do this, what stops other major brands — across men’s and women’s college basketball, and football — from trying to do something similar?

A number of ACC athletics directors have certainly taken notice. Florida State AD Michael Alford said he still had some questions and was seeking more information about the arrangement.

“That’s something that I’m in favor of,” Alford said, later adding, “you want to be a good partner, but you are also going to explore all options to see what is in the best interest for Florida State.”

For years, college sports media has operated on a relatively fixed model: schools signed away rights to conferences, conferences packaged them with television partners and that revenue was shared across the league. Duke’s Amazon deal, to some, represents a chink in that armor — and, potentially, a more fragmented future.

As traditional television models continue to weaken, companies like Amazon, Netflix and Apple are aggressively pursuing sports rights capable of driving subscriptions. College athletics programs — particularly those with national brands like Duke men’s basketball — fit that strategy.

The Blue Devils consistently deliver some of the highest-rated regular-season basketball broadcasts in the country and boast an estimated enterprise valuation of roughly $370 million, per Indiana University professor Ryan Brewer’s study in The Wall Street Journal.

There are also structural advantages the Blue Devils benefitted from in this process.

Unlike public institutions like UNC or N.C. State, Duke is not subject to the same public records requirements, giving the Blue Devils more privacy in negotiations involving proprietary business data and media modeling.

What’s in it for the players?

The arrangement will create new commercial opportunities for Duke’s players, generating additional value for the Blue Devil roster.

“We haven’t drilled down on specifics yet,” King said, “but our student-athletes will be involved in marketing the games and then create agreements to put through NIL Go. So that’s the exciting piece of this. There’s definitely a student-athlete revenue piece to it.”

King said the next step forward will be nailing down exactly how Duke’s athletes will be involved in the marketing.

That could look like something similar to Amazon’s “NBA on Prime” campaign, which featured commercials of Prime Video talent Taylor Rooks and Blake Griffin delivering NBA stars Donovan Mitchell and Luka Dončić to a customer’s front door. Or, as King pointed out, Duke athletes might get involved in Amazon’s influencer program by creating their own Amazon storefronts. — just like former Blue Devil Jared McCain did during the 2023-24 season.

“We can get really creative… I think that’s exciting,” King said. “This will benefit all our student-athletes who want to be involved.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Why Duke basketball’s `innovative’ Amazon deal could reshape college sports media."