Duke does suck, they said so themselves.
From 850 the Buzz:
The Blue Devils had a 4-game series arranged with the Cardinals, but Duke backed out of the deal with 3 games remaining. Typical in these contracts is a penalty for breaching the deal. In Duke’s case, they owed Louisville $150,000 if the university couldn’t schedule another “team of similar stature.” The Cardinals claimed they couldn’t and sued for $450,000. Duke said, “are you serious?” In a brilliant legal move, Duke lawyers told the judge that their team is so bad, any school would be a suitable replacement. The judge’s summary bought it:
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.
That is outstanding and really an innovative legal maneuver. Louisville could have scheduled anyone in the upper half of I-AA and found a "team of similar stature." Heck, they could have schedule Independence High School in Charlotte and been close.