The Duke Chronicle reports that attorneys representing the lacrosse players says that their clients categorically deny that “any sexual act occurred with the dancer.”

Interesting—you would think that if something had happened, they would have argued that it was consensual.

Local DA Mike Nifong is unconvinced. “The statements that [the team] makes are inconsistent with the physical evidence in this case,” he said Wednesday.

This is only getting to be more complicated…and meanwhile, there’s more student protest, and the Duke campus has turned into a media zoo.

I don’t mean to be flip, but all this negative attention at another campus is actually good news for Harvard, which has finally gotten some good press—which it deserves—for its plan to exempt families with incomes of less than $60,000 from paying tuition.

And by the way, a little media aside: Last week, when the University of Pennsylvania announced that it was going tuition-free for families with incomes up to 50k (at that point, a higher exemption than any other university), the New York Times said not a word. But Harvard makes an announcement, and predictably, a major story (see the link above). If I were Amy Gutmann, I’d be deeply irritated.