ATHLETIC ELIGIBILITY.

The meeting of the I. C. A. A. A. A. in New York on Sunday has once more brought into the light of public discussion the problem of eligibility for participation in intercollegiate athletic contests. The resolution that was passed, and which is to be brought before the annual meeting of this association in March, provides for the suspension of the famous one year rule. This resolution was passed in view of the fact that many athletes would otherwise be unjustly prevented from participating in sports when they returned to college this year. The resolution is excellent in principle, but such contemplated action would throw open the field of university competition to all Freshmen. For this reason the situation needs careful scrutiny.

Opposed to the principle of permitting. Freshmen to compete in intercollegiate contests is the agreement that is in force between Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. By this agreement Freshmen are not allowed to compete on university teams. Moreover, the peculiar situation we are now facing will be over in another year, and consequently Freshman athletics will be on the same footing in 1920 as before the war.

In consideration of these two aspects of eligibility, a policy that is midway between that of the I. C. A. A. A. A. and the agreement of Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, seems advisable. The Freshmen should, therefore, still participate in Freshman athletics alone, and the upperclassmen only should compete on the university teams. But provision should be made so that men who have returned from war service be allowed to take part in intercollegiate athletics, even if they are catalogued as "Unclassified" on the college records.