The Duke Blue Devils suffered a heartbreaking loss in Saturday’s Final Four, collapsing in the closing minutes of a heartbreaking defeat to the Houston Cougars. With the Blue Devils’ season over and many of its biggest stars departing, historic investments are being put into Duke’s NIL budget for next season.
Duke used its NIL war chest effectively last year, landing five-star recruits Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel. The freshman sensations helped the program reach the Final Four, but came up just short, making just one shot in the closing minutes.
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Now, Flagg and Knueppel are expected to be top picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. Meanwhile, Maluach is facing potential separation in light of the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement of plans to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders. It will lead to an overhaul of the Blue Devils’ roster, hence requiring an even bigger investment in NIL.
According to Pete Nakos of On3.com, the Blue Devils are ‘ready to reload’ this offseason with an NIL budget between $8 to $10 million for the 2025-’26 roster.
The Blue Devils’ history of success speaks for itself and the men’s basketball program is rarely outbid when it comes to pursuing top targets in both the transfer portal and coming out of high school. However, Duke wants to take things to the next level and that means an NIL budget that, one source told On3.com is an ‘unlimited’ war chest to win a championship.
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Recently, Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal highlighted the ‘dark money’ funding the Duke NIL program. It was created by alum Jeff Fox, who is the founder and CEO of investment firm Circumference Group. The Blue Devils’ NIL funding is also coming from fellow alum Dan Levitan, a venture capital, and ex-Goldman Sachs partner Steve Duncker.
Pouring millions of dollars into the Blue Devils’ men’s basketball is nothing new, but the end results haven’t been there. Duke has now gone 10 consecutive years without a national championship, despite the fact that they’ve rostered the most five-star players (32) in the country during that span.
Duke also needs to invest more, given its 2025 recruiting class. The Blue Devils have the top class in 247 Sports‘ team recruiting rankings for 2025, landing a quartet of star recruits – Cameron Boozer, Shelton Henderson, Nikolas Khamenia and Cayden Boozer – to replace Flagg and Co. next season.
