LEAGUES IN FOOTBALL DESIRED BY McCLELLAN

In a recent article for one of the University of Pennsylvania publications Dean William McClellan, Chairman of the University Council on Athletics proposes an interesting plan for the elimination of many of the evils of present day sports at colleges, and particularly those which arise during the football season. His main theme is that forming alliances of colleges of corresponding size for athletic purposes and thus doing away with the so-called "practice" games between large and small institutions, on the theory that these contests tempt the smaller teams to violate the ethics of college sports in order to foster strength to beat the larger institutions.

Dean McClellan's arguments are in part as follows:

"In all talk of exclusive groups of big colleges, leagues and federations, one important point seems to have been over-looked. That is the so-called practice game, which to my mind is responsible for much that is unsportsmanlike in college athletics. I have in mind football, particularly, but the criticism applies in some degree to other sports as well.

Should Form Athletic League.

"There are seven colleges and universities in the East, which, because of their student enrollment, traditions and other resources, are natural competitors. These may be listed as Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. I believe that most of the objectionable features of our college sports would be eliminated if in football and other sports, too, these institutions would confine their schedules to games with each other.

"When one of these institutions starts to make up a football schedule, the sole aim seems to be to so arrange games that the team may work up to its maximum strength at the end of the season when it is expected to meet one or two strong competitors. The schedule is arranged so that in the early part of the season teams are played which are not real competitors at all, and cannot be expected to win except by reason of some extraordinary circumstance.

So far as this group of large institutions is concerned, there can be no decision as to championship or first place. But the effect on the smaller institutions is very questionable. The desire of many of these, when they get on the schedule of a big team, is to strive to win that particular game because of a certain prestige which victory will assure them. Certainly the development of such a team is not normal. Moreover, the temptation has been too powerful to be overcome, and strong players have been enticed to small institutions by means which would not bear publication. It is to the credit of American college sport that on the whole small institutions have resisted this temptation.

"There are one or two competitions which are almost traditional and which have a right to a reserved place at the end of the season. Such competitions embrace the Yale-Harvard game and the Pennsylvania Cornell Thanksgiving Day game. There are numerous others among the smaller colleges, but none among the big institutions that I know of.

Play Would be Fair Throughout.

"There is no apparent reason, therefore, why the seven institutions listed above should not confine their games to each other. There can be no valid objection to any two of these institutions playing each other in the first game of the season. There would be schedule difficulties, of course, due to the fact that the season is short and that teams cannot travel back and forth without limit. There would be no danger to two big teams playing early in the season because the development of the teams would be equal, inasmuch as practice starts about the same time everywhere. The details of the plan are too complex to be settled by one person. Particulars reference is made to football because the play is so strenuous that games cannot be multiplied at will.

"There is no reason why there should not be minor leagues in collegiate institutions just as there are elsewhere. As a matter of fact, even under present football rules, small institutions are not reasonable competitors for large institutions. I am such a thorough believer in intercollegiate competition that I find no difficulty in considering an Eastern league and a Western league of natural competitors, and I would leave opportunity for the winners to play at the end of the season on some neutral college ground or municipal stadium which would be conveniently accessible to both."