News-Record.com

Really, I think we have officially reached the bottom for Duke football. And I'm not just saying that because many folks, including me, expect the Blue Devils to pull themselves up off the proverbial floor under new coach David Cutcliffe.

No, I'm saying that Duke football can go no lower than this.

For those of you who don't want to be bothered with clicking on that link to the Wizard of Odds blog and reading the Louisville Courier-Journal article that's linked to there, allow me to summarize.

Duke originally signed a four-game deal with Louisville in football. The Blue Devils got smoked, 40-3, back in 2002 (amazingly, I was there) Duke has since pulled out of games that had been scheduled for 2007-2009. Louisville was ticked and sued to get $450,000 - a $150,000 per game penalty spelled out in the contract.

Not so fast, said Duke's cagey lawyers. The penalty only occurs if a game with a team if a "team of similar stature" can't be arranged. So here's what Duke argued: we're so bad that any team you can find would be a suitable replacement.

I'm not making this up. Here's what the judge wrote in his ruling, in which he agreed with Duke's argument.

"At oral argument, Duke (with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty) persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower. Duke’s argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville."

Wow. Just wow. I guess it was worth the $450,000 to Duke to come out and publically say that there is no worse football program in Division I. Not that many would disagree with the Blue Devils, but still ...

But here's what I don't get. Why didn't Louisville make this counter-argument?

"Look, when we scheduled this game we were looking for an easy Division I win. In that regard, trying to find a suitable team to replace Duke is exceedingly difficult."

What judge could rule against that?