You’d think Duke University would’ve learned its lesson long ago. It’s been 16 years, after all, since the university disgraced itself by falling hook, line, and sinker for the dubious accusation of a black stripper who accused three white members of the school’s men’s lacrosse team of raping her.

The stripper’s case eventually collapsed, but not before the school’s gutless administrators — President Richard Brodhead and Athletic Director Joe Alleva — canceled the team’s season, and not before the three accused players — Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann — had been indicted by a crooked DA, Mike Nifong, and vilified by gullible leftist professors across campus and around the nation.

Now it appears that a member of Duke’s women’s volleyball team has conjured up a racial hoax of her own — either that, or she was somehow able to hear things that no one else heard during a game at Brigham Young University. That volleyball player, Rachel Richardson, claims that BYU fans yelled the N-word at her during a game on August 26.

We have no word yet on whether the racists were Nigerian Mormon bodybuilders or wore MAGA hats. But we do have plenty of words from the BYU Athletic Department, which just finished an exhaustive investigation. As National Review reports:

In a statement made public earlier today, BYU announced that it had “completed its investigation into the allegation that racial heckling and slurs took place,” which involved reviewing “all available video and audio recordings, including security footage and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match,” and reaching out to “more than 50 individuals who attended the event.” It found no “evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.”

Anyone else getting the sense that it didn’t happen? Surely someone saw or heard or recorded something, right? Just like someone saw it or heard it or recorded it when members of the Congressional Black Caucus were spit upon and called racial epithets by Tea Partiers as they marched to the Capitol in support of ObamaCare legislation back in 2010.

What’s that? Oh, never mind. Apparently, the estate of the late Andrew Breitbart still has the $100,000 he pledged to the United Negro College Fund if anyone could provide proof of even one of the “15 times” the N-word was hurled at the group that day.

Then as now, these cries of “wolf” hurt most the real victims of hate crimes, because we’re becoming less and less inclined to believe them. And we don’t see things improving until we begin treating hate crime hoaxes with the same criminal severity as actual hate crimes. Because, when one thinks about it, that’s exactly what these hoaxes are.

Having sided with the accuser in this latest case, the mainstream media doesn’t seem to have learned its lesson. Said CNN’s Alisyn Camerota to BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe, “What does it say about the BYU community and culture that this happened?”

That it happened? We’re surprised Camerota didn’t ask Holmoe when he stopped beating his wife.

Nor are we surprised that South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, herself a black woman and a former star collegiate athlete, canceled her school’s games against BYU, saying “As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff.”

Nor are we surprised that Duke’s athletic director, Nina Turner, issued a statement on Friday rejecting the findings of BYU’s investigation and boldly standing behind her volleyball team:

The 18 members of the Duke University volleyball team are exceptionally strong women who represent themselves, their families, and Duke University with the utmost integrity. We unequivocally stand with and champion them, especially when their character is called into question. Duke Athletics believes in respect, equality and inclusiveness, and we do not tolerate hate and bias.

It’s encouraging to know that Duke stands behind its women. Unfortunately, the Duke men’s lacrosse team couldn’t be reached for comment.