Judge: Duke Football Is The Worst Team....EVER!

Every college football program out there tries to schedule a couple gimme games each year. The football program at Duke has been an AD favorite for years and years. Not only does it give more quality win points than a victory against a D-II team, but the typical jock loves the notion of beating up the smart rich kids that go to Duke.

And that's what the University of Louisville thought they had. UL had signed a contract with Duke to play four times between 2002 and 2009 - the first game was played in Durham in 2003 (the Cardinals destroyed the Blue Devils 40-3), and the final 3 games were scheduled for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons. However, after being effectively emasculated at home, Duke decided it was tired of being a whipping boy and backed out of the contract.

Louisville, not wanting to give up such an easy opponent, sued for breach of contract. A Kentucky judge ruled in favor of Duke, sighting the fact that the Duke Blue Devil football club is the worst team in the history of football.

According to the contract, in the event of Duke's withdrawal, they would be responsible for finding a "team of similar stature" or face a $150,000 per game penalty - that's a total of $450,000 for those of you playing at home. Duke's lawyers argued that Duke is so bad that in order to find a "team of similar stature", the NCAA would have to allow a local Pop Warner football team to play Louisville. Obviously, this raises significant concerns for the safety of the 10-12 year olds that would be playing the Cardinals. The judge, not wanting to be responsible for the mass paralyzing of an entire little league football team, ruled that any other college team would do instead.

Do you think this is legal equivalent of the "Good Sportsmanship Award" little kids get when they're on the worst team in the league? The judge obviously feels for the Blue Devils and their horrible 6-45 record over the past 5 years. I'm going to have to agree with him. Losing 40-3 at home is flat out embarrassing. Add that to Duke's record of 13-90 since 1999, and it's a wonder that the Duke players could even muster the spirit to put on the uniform each Saturday.

Oh well. Duke has themselves a new coach - David Cutcliffe of Ole Miss and Tennessee fame. So maybe they can get 2 wins this year - they beat Northwestern for their only win last year, FYI.