Duke is just different than most, if not all, other colleges. I was at Duke about 4 years ago for something one of my kids was doing. While we were there, I played a round of golf at UNC's golf course, and another day, I hit some balls on Duke's driving range. UNC's course was a typical college course: it was fine, nothing fancy, and in pretty good but not great shape.
From the driving range at Duke, I could see part of their course. It looked like Augusta National. I mean, it was such an impressive looking golf course. I remember going back to our hotel later that day and looking up endowments. Just did that again, and Duke's is over $12 billion. For comparison, UK's is $2.5 billion.
They just have so much money, it's almost unfair. I'm really glad they haven't won a championship recently despite all of that money, but that money is always going to buy a lot more than what the rest of us can buy.