NCAA non-conference basketball games have been held in some pretty unique locations over the years. Duke and Michigan are continuing to push the envelope about what’s possible for an appropriate college hoops game setting.
The powerhouse programs were set to play at Madison Square Garden this December, but the contest is reportedly on the doorstep of being moved to loanDepot Park. The venue is home to MLB’s Miami Marlins.
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The crux of the reason why the game is being moved to a baseball stadium has to do with the unique broadcasting rights for this game. Amazon and Duke reached an agreement where the streaming platform would have exclusive rights to broadcast three Blue Devils non-conference games, one of which is the Michigan contest.
By having the game in Florida, Amazon essentially avoids a territorial rights dispute with the Big Ten and Fox, which lays claim to games in New York involving the conference’s teams.
“TV is paying a lot of money for this,” one source told CBS Sports. “Schools got paid, the Big Ten got paid. This is Fox flexing its muscle and standing on principle.”
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It will be interesting to see if this creative maneuver lays the groundwork for other schools to come up with inventive ways to drive business with exclusive rights deals of their own.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Duke – Michigan: Why game will likely be played at MLB ballpark
