While the Big 12 jumped headfirst into private equity to raise revenues this week, Duke made a brilliant, groundbreaking media rights move that raised revenues using their brand power. Duke, in a flash, blew away years of ACC Media Rights misconceptions. You know the one that ACC Media rights were locked so tight by ESPN, that there was no further way they could be monetized.
Now what’s not clear whether the ACC itself played any role, but we know who very likely did. The AD of Duke Nina King, arguably the best AD in the ACC after a move like this, plus the 3 major sports ACC Titles in football, and both men’s and women’s basketball this year.
So how did this deal come about? This is from Matt Norlander’s article on the topic at CBSSports.com
The Duke/Amazon partnership is a multiyear agreement and the NIL opportunities for Duke will be huge — in the millions annually — sources told CBS Sports.
On the broadcast side, Duke is a member of the ACC, which has a long-term television rights deal with ESPN. The workaround Duke managed was to play non-ACC games in cities (Las Vegas, Detroit) where the ACC does not have automatic/default broadcast rights because it does not have member schools in those areas. Madison Square Garden technically falls under that jurisdiction because Syracuse, an ACC team, is in the state of New York, but ESPN and Duke came to terms on making an exception — with a compromise. ESPN negotiated Duke into future nonconference games later this decade in exchange for allowing the NYC matchup with Michigan.
The precedent this sets could be far-reaching. Could the football series between Clemson and Notre Dame have games moved to places like Tennessee, for example, and streamed? Could UNC basketball take advantage of such a scenario? Florida State, Miami football?
Certainly not every ACC school has the brand power to pull off such a deal, but some do. Credit Duke for beating not just everyone in the ACC, but anyone else in the country for such an innovative and creative way to increase revenues
Does Nina King want to be ACC Commissioner?
