Lawsuit of the Day: Let the Duke Hatin' Begin
Sometimes it seems like Duke University is as polarizing as Hillary Clinton. People love it or people hate it. Even before the lacrosse scandal. If the hate comes from jealousy over Duke being a top ten school with one of the best NCAA basketball programs in the country (in past years), perhaps people should start shifting their hate over to Stanford. Duke didn't even make it to the Sweet Sixteen this year.
We are not the only ones making the Duke inferiority argument. Duke's legal team basically used the "Duke football sucks" argument to win a breach of contract lawsuit brought by the University of Louisville. From the Courier-Journal:
U of L sued Duke for $450,000 -- or a series with another Atlantic Coast Conference opponent -- after the Blue Devils backed out of a four-game football contract with three dates remaining.The contract called for a penalty of $150,000 per game if a date with a "team of similar stature" could not be arranged.
Duke's lawyers argued the Blue Devils, which have a record of 6-45 over the past five seasons, were so bad that any team would be a suitable replacement.
Judge Shepherd agreed in his summary: "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."
Duke football may indeed suck, but Duke's lawyers are pretty savvy.
Judge agrees: Duke football as bad as it gets [Courier-Journal via AOL Fanhouse]
(100) Comments
UNC is first in March 2009
Kash to ATL Sports Editor (at least it's law related)
Have "Duke" and "institutional modesty" ever appeared in the same sentence before?
first to say duke sucks
first to say duke sucks
Wahoo Wa! Go Cavs!
Shouldn't be too hard for Lousville to find another patsy, but I guess Duke is especially attractive because it's still in a major conference.
That's a pathetic argument. Duke was in the AP top 25 last year (I know) and gets ACC attention and coverage. You can't use historical data in something as fluid as college football.
For example: Isn't Notre Dame supposed to have one of the best records in history? Maybe they can play U of L instead.
That's a pathetic argument. Duke was in the AP top 25 last year (I know) and gets ACC attention and coverage. You can't use historical data in something as fluid as college football.
For example: Isn't Notre Dame supposed to have one of the best records in history? Maybe they can play U of L instead.
That's a pathetic argument. Duke was in the AP top 25 last year (I know) and gets ACC attention and coverage. You can't use historical data in something as fluid as college football.
For example: Isn't Notre Dame supposed to have one of the best records in history? Maybe they can play U of L instead.
Quick, someone tell me--is that a pathetic argument?
Although I think the argument was good from a legal standpoint, do the Duke attorney's really need to give us the kick to the baby makers. Glad to see the school is behind us and the new coach. There will be a day soon (this year) where clowns from Chapel Hill and C-ville can't say "well at least we are better in football" after we beat them in basketball. (And yes I know Duke and UNC have been splitting the season series the last few years).
nobody cares about notre dame anymore. they have not won in a long time and top recruits do not go there anymore. just ask charlie weiss
whoops, Duke was not ap 25. My God, they are that horrible.
What exactly is the point of having a Sports editor when the only legally-related sports news is posted by someone else?
I agree with 11:27.
This was interesting when I first read about it several days ago.
Anyone who could mistakenly think that Duke sniffed the Top 25 should never be allowed to talk about sports again.
People hate Duke not just because of their athletics, it's mainly because it's bunch of NY and NJ losers who couldn't get into an Ivy and had to end up going to NC on their parents money.
"nobody cares about notre dame anymore. they have not won in a long time and top recruits do not go there anymore. just ask charlie weiss"
Yeah 11:36, no top recruits go to ND...that must be why they had 3 5-star commits and 16 4-star commits this year in the Rivals #2 recruiting class. I'm not even an ND fan and I have to admit they were beasts on the recruiting trail this year.
Next time you should just type with your ass and avoid any translation problems.
There is a Fried Frank stuck in my Cravath. Please advise. Over.
11:36 -- ND had a bad season last year, but claiming that they haven't "won in a long time" is way off base. ND also had a top 5 recruiting class last year, and they've pulled in the top running back in the country this year -- Cierre Wood. So apparently there are recruits who still "go there." Obviously, you have no idea what you're talking about -- are you the same guy who just said that Duke was in the AP top 25 last year in football?
Lat, why aren't you doing a post about the death of George Carlin?
11:45,
And yet of the non-Ivy options, they take NC over Duke. Why? Because Duke sucks and is full of blowhards.
Should not be a Top Ten school.
No one hires at Duke except TTT firms in Charlotte and Atlanta. As an aside, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that the entire state of Texas sucks as well.
11:30 -- UVA fan. LOL. Only in a Duke football thread could a UVA fan actually brag about their sports. UVA sucks. The problem is that UVA fans don't believe it.
11:59, I am a Duke law grad who can see many problems with Duke. Most of my class where stuck up idiots, the career service people are a joke, most of the law students (but not the undergrads) were annoying to be around during basketball games as most where people who came to the sport lately and were following a winning team. I see many things wrong with Durham, which is a dump, and that entire triangle, which is over rated with no social scene except the mythical 9th street and the piss poor franklin street.
HOWEVER, comments like yours are so wrong as to discount those with valid argulemts. I am in Charlotte, one of 6 from my class here. Everyone thought we were mad and I would say over 80% are in New York or DC (or home as they would put it). The top firms recruit here and while I was turned down by WL, others made it.
For those for those of you hating on duke ugrad and saying it's full of ivy rejects, check out the following stats: 1) average SAT scores, 2) # of rhodes scholars for the last 5 years. Duke's average SAT is higher than all but 5 or 6 schools, and Duke has produced more rhodes scholars in the past 5 years than all but harvard and yale.
i'm no duke fan myself, but people that say they are overrated obviously haven't looked at indicators of student body quality, and most suggest that duke ugrad is (at least) a top 10 school.
Agreed. Duke is almost as big a TTT as Notre Dame and Ohio State (I'm sure you can guess my own school affiliation from that comment).
this is a much better sports/law-related post than that monday morning qback drivel
12:10 -- I too am a Duke law grad. You are way too easy on the undergrads. Although the law school was fully of very bright, but socially inept people, most top notch law schools are too. But the undergrads at Duke are really, really bad. If I went there as an undergrad, I probably wouldn't have attended a single basketball game, and I am a HUGE basketball fan. The Cameron Crazies are an embarrassment.
As for the Franklin Street scene, you must have been going to the wrong places because anyone who can't find a good time on Franklin Street, particularly when the weather is nice and UNC co-eds are out in full force, either isn't looking, or wouldn't know a good time if it sat on their face.
UVA and Duke are both terrible. Why even debate this. UVA is filled to the brim with madras wearing, mint julep drinking southern dandies and Duke is just plain awful. My time at GULC was the best decision I have made in my life.
Are there any duke supporters out there.
Another Duke Law grad here - I feel like I have to speak up because 12:16 and 12:10 just strike me as wrong. Agreed with 12:16 about the undergrads, but unless things have really changed at Duke Law in the last few years, I found my classmates to be far from "socially inept" and were actually ridiculously fun and social. Similarly, 12:10, Durham and the greater Triangle area are full of great stuff to do and see. (Has anyone ever suggested that 9th Street is actually fun?!?)
And on basketball - how can anyone fault a student at Duke for becoming a Duke basketball fan? If anyone is entitled to do so, it's them! Personally, I stuck with my undergrad team, but still have a warm spot hidden deep in my heart for Coach K and the Blue Devils.
12:25,
What the hell do you have against a good mint julep?
12:25, it's not the drink, it's the douchebag in the popped collar holding it.
12:25: Duke law alumi here. You know what we have in common? We both got into GULC.
12:29: Count at least one Duke supporter.
12:35 -- EXACTLY.
Is collar popping not allowed in the South? Here in Bah Hahbah and on the Vineyard we always pop our collars.
Here is a picture of your typical UVA douchebag
http://www.collegeslackers.com/daily_images/458.jpg
Most of the people who read this site should never be allowed to talk about sports. AP Top 25? Seriously? They do get 1 vote for the Coaches' Top 25 each year, and that's from Spurrier, and it only lasts for 1 week, right before Duke loses to Western Carolina or The Citadel to start the season.
Who says Duke is a top ten school? US News? Top ten in what? Stanfurd and Duke are not in the same league academically. If US News has Duke in the top ten, that is a pretty good argument against the credibility of US News!
Can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive bourbon?
1:03--Earley Times. It is delicious
According to US News, Duke Law is a borderline top 10 school. They appear periodically in the T10, though it's possible that they don't belong there.
That said, I turned down Duke Law for a different school.
As a Stanfurd grad, I think that Duke is just as good.
Jim Beam and a popped collar. Delicious every time.
Has anyone noticed that people from the south have funny names?
Duke grad- you need to stop resting on your basketball laurels. When was the last time Duke made an elite 8 appearance? Got to look it up? Exactly.
UVA douche bags.
A thread about Duke that turns into rag on UVA.
Who let the Fordham grads out?
12:12, UMICH is about as TTT as it gets...have fun with your hippies and ugly chicks.
If we're discounting Jack Daniels as not truly bourbon, can we pick a winner between Maker's Mark and Jim Beam?
@12:08
UVa athletics really suck. After all, UVa has only been ranked in the top 25 schools in the NACDA Directors Cup(formerly Sears Cup) for the past 15 years. What a crummy showing, huh?
Now go back to chasing the ugliest women in the ACC.
Ugliest women in the South.
12:10 here again. I loved my time at Duke, and I turned down Cornell, NYU, GULC (What a stupid name for a las school) and Michigan - Mainly as Duke gave me a scholarship but also as I loved the campus, and wanted to study with Lange and Cox (insert joke here).
Franklin Street sucked, and most Duke students I knew hung out at that stupid garage place, or the overpriced pub/restaurant in same new building where barristers ballw as. Have purge name from memory. Look, I live and work in Charlotte so its not like this is Manhatten for nightlife, but if you got to Duke for a social scene you are retarded (and thus, ironically, probably very happy ).
12:25: Your last sentence undermines your first three. Anyone who thinks that highly of Union Station Law Factory is one of those know-it-all prestige-obsessed annoyances the rest of us have to steel ourselves to to put up with.
1:18: Don't forget the ACC now includes BC....
Southern dandy UVA homos. Pop your collars more! Your madras shorts look good. Seriously.
this should be the stuff that Edelman writes about; it is much more ATL-esque. I hate the crap that he usually writes about.
1:24:
If you wrote your application that way, I'd be surprised if Cornell, Michigan, and NYU even considered you.
For undergrad at least, Harvard/Yale/Princeton are the only Ivies one could argue are better than Duke. Cornell, Brown, Darmouth? Come on.
12:25 - "Union Station Law Factory" = awesome. Haven't seen that one before.
1:29 forgot UPenn State and Columbia.
In Goldfinger, James Bond orders a mint julep with Tennessee sour mash instead of bourbon. Does this mean I can use Jack Daniel's instead of Jim Beam?
What so great about Tobacco U.?
I'd respond to all you U.Va. haters but I am too busy popping my collar and making mint juleps. . . .
I'd respond to all you U.Va. haters but I am too busy popping my collar and making mint juleps. . . .
what about duke chicks, are they any hot
Yes 1.29, I was so lucky. There is a difference between writing on a blog comment and writing a law school application. If you haven't worked that out, well that probably explains a lot.
1:50:
Since you clearly haven't worked out the conditional nature of an "if" statement, I'm surprised you hold a J.D., but not surprised that you went to Duke.
-1:29
1:29/1:54, I refer you to my previus post at 1:50, and kindly request that you leave the car running next time you are in your garage.
I am popping my collar right now at U Richmond. We pop our collars higher than UVA dandies as far as I can tell. Mint juleps are for homos. Drink beer like any other self respecting man.
yeah going to uva is horrible...great school, great sports, hot girls, great parties, beautiful campus....the 4 years i was there for college really sucked.
people really do hate my school more than anything. a lot of insecure people on this board i guess.
Beautiful girls? At UVA? Huh? You all the hot girls from road cheese schools trolling the dark hallways of the frat houses looking for someone to pop their collars with?
1:56:
I'll gladly do so, but I will of course leave the garage door open.
2:07, you would be a lot cooler if you didn't.
2:10:
Depends on how hot it is outside, I guess.
"If we're discounting Jack Daniels as not truly bourbon, can we pick a winner between Maker's Mark and Jim Beam?"
Jack Daniel's is not bourbon. That is a fact, not an opinion.
But I don't see why acknowledging that it is not bourbon somehow discounts it. Jack Daniel's is a great whiskey.
I appreciate Jim Beam, as well as the role in played in my formative years, but I don't know many that would take Beam over Maker's Mark. If we are introducing value to the equation, then that is different, but from a taste perspective, I think Maker's is the clear winner over Beam.
Hahahaha. UVA, great sports. Sure, great soccer, LAX, .....let's talk real sports, like the sport this thread is about.....football. UVA is solidly mediocre in that dept, has been and always will be. Same for hoops. Take your LAX and soccer and go drink your mint juleps w/ your popped collar douchebag friends.
LAX is an airport, not a sport.
Kas to Sports Editor!
Kas to Sports Editor!
LAX playing popped collar frankenhomos!! Go to hell UVA and Duke!
duke ungdergrad here--i feel the need to defend duke which is truly a fantastic institution. arguments about whether stanford or duke or some ivy is better are just silly and pointless. they're all great schools. unc, of course, is a different story.
Poppin collars should be a sport.
Video proof that Duke sucks -
http://chillablehours.com/2008/06/23/duke-sucks/
2:44 -
No question, Makers. If you grew up in the South, you were practically weaned on Beam. I know many people I grew up with who still fancy Beam. In this way, I argue they never grew up at all.
Makers is much better, and really treats you better the next day. Beam has sent many a southerner to an early grave. After having said that, I feel that many on this blog will now advocate for the free distribution of Beam to the UVA student population.
1000 cases of Beam to UVA immediately. Better yet, make it 2000.
"If the hate comes from jealousy over Duke being a top ten school with one of the best NCAA basketball programs in the country (in past years)..."
False. The hate comes from Puke fans being insufferable d-bags who talk crap during the season, then the team inevitably gets their asses handed to them by some mid-major pansy school. Not to mention Coach Ratface being a disingenuous scumbag and turning on the crocodile tears when being interviewed.
http://www.coachk.com/stories.php
How has coach KrzyJesus-complex transformed YOUR life?
If you look up Duke's location on a map, you think its a Southern school. If you've ever been there, you know it isn't.
Duke and BC easily have the ugliest girls in the ACC. In BC's case, it isn't really the school's fault, it's Boston's fault.
Has anyone seen any cheat sheets distributed by Puke fans? Game. Set. Match.
Still poppin collars at UVA. Pop pop, bitch.
My problem with Duke haters? Massive over generalization. Yea, Duke's got it's share of preppy NJ kids, but I feel like most major schools do. We also had a lot of really awesome people. And yea, Durham and the Triangle area isn't New York, but if you accept it for what it is, it's actually a nice place to live if you're in the right parts of town.
And yea, as is probably obvious, I went to Duke (undergrad; NYU for law school--though I almost, almost stayed at Duke again)
Duke is top ten in the south...
Duke is a great school
To poop on.
Signed,
Maryland Basketball
Speaking of people who should never be allowed to talk sports again, my vote goes to 11:50, who chimed in with, "ND had a bad season last year, but claiming that they haven't "won in a long time" is way off base."
No, it's not way off base. It's dead-on accurate. ND hasn't won a national championship in 20 years and hasn't even won a bowl game in 14.
Of course, I'm not complaining. Eventually they'll have to join a conference like everyone else and won't be able to rely on "tradition" to justify special treatment. "Wow! So you're a private school that is willing to play teams all over the country?" That may have been kind of special when teams traveled across the country by train. But it's really not that big a deal anymore. Also, the fact that ND is perennially overrated doesn't help much either.
One of my favorite parts of last season: Listening to the positive "spin" from NBC executives after it was contractually obligated to broadcast 1-9 Notre Dame versus 1-9 Duke: the weakest matchup in the history of nationally-broadcast college football.
Has anyone seen my basketball program? It's been missing for the last 5 years.
Signed,
Terrapin
Has anyone seen my football program?
Signed,
Blue Douche
Two words: Tucker Max
I love Duke. Haters to the left.