SCHEDULE REDUCTIONS.

As the question of the length of schedules has been the cause of a large part of the athletic controversy in the past few years it is of interest to see how the schedules of today compare in the number of games played with last year and five or ten years ago. We are supposed to be proceeding at present on a platform of reduction. The Faculty has expressed its opinion that a considerable curtailment would be wise and there have been varying estimates as to what the limits of the reduction should be. It seems only practical from the athletic standpoint to bring about such a change fairly gradually, rather than attempt to reach the final basis by one wholesale cut.

Looking back over the number of games in the schedules of the past fifteen years we find two distinct climaxes. The first was in 1893-94 in the case of football and baseball, the two major sports which have caused the trouble. The greatest number of games a University football team has ever played was thirteen in 1893 and in the spring of the following year the baseball schedule was the longest on record, containing thirty-three games. As these figures have gradually decreased the schedules of the minor sports have increased, until the climax was reached last year when there were thirteen games on the hockey schedule and sixteen for the basketball team.

The schedules for 1908-09 show some interesting changes. They have not all been approved as yet but they are being drawn up on the following basis. A schedule of twenty-three games is being prepared for the baseball team as opposed to twenty-seven last year, a reduction of fifteen per cent. The basketball schedule was cut in half by reducing the number from sixteen to eight, while the hockey team is scheduled for ten games as opposed to thirteen last year. The football schedule contained ten games last fall, the same as the previous year. The schedule for the coming fall has not been announced. Opinions differ widely on the number of games which can be safely sacrificed on this schedule, but some reduction can and should be made here. Two schedules which have caused considerable trouble have been practically eliminated. Hereafter the golf team and the tennis team must hold their intercollegiate championships before College opens in the fall instead of the first week of the term as formerly. This is a big improvement and causes a large reduction in the absences from Cambridge.

The Committee is very much awake to the situation and what is expected of them. They are probably not curtailing as rapidly as some would have them, but, with the interest of athletics very much at heart, they are doing well to proceed carefully.