NCAA Lifts Limitations on Squad Size; Coaches Predict Participation Increase

The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) meeting in St. Louis last week lifted limitations on squad sizes that Harvard coaches said hindered participation in athletics.

The limitations have been in effect since last August, when the NCAA met to try to help balance budgets of athletic departments.

The previous restrictions limited both home and away teams. In swimming the squads were limited to 23 for the home team and 18 for the visiting squad. Harvard swimming coach Ray Essick felt the rules were unfair.

"It placed the visitor at a real disadvantage," Essick said yesterday. "I think in August the NCAA just didn't do their homework."

But Essick and other coaches emphasized the real injustice of the former limits. "It was unfortunate that some people couldn't race," Essick said.

"The only cost of going to Dartmouth last week was a meal at Dartmouth and a meal at McDonald's. We could have put more people on the bus," Essick said.

Edgar Stowell, assistant coach of the winter track team, felt that the rule change won't have a significant effect on track meet outcomes. Indoor track teams were limited to 28 at home and 22 on the road.

"I don't think it will help us right away," Stowell said yesterday. "But it did keep people out of varsity competition, people that deserved a chance. Some athletes who knew they were not in the top haven't worked as hard."

"The rule was, in our philosophy of athletics here, completely ridiculous," Loyal Park, coach of the varsity baseball and freshman football teams, said yesterday. "We're glad we can play all the people we want to."

The home and travel limitations were 60 and 48 for football, 23 and 18 for baseball, and 13 and 10 for basketball.

Women's sports, under the jurisdiction of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), were unaffected by any NCAA regulation changes.

Athletic Director Robert Watson represented Harvard at the convention. "In August the feeling was that all institutions had to cut back," he said yesterday. "But instead of the big drive to cut back last week, there was a move to remove the limits."

Watson and other Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference schools voted as a block on the major issues. "The ECAC see things pretty much the way we do," Watson said. "We all had several caucuses among ourselves, formal and informal."

Other matters discussed at the convention included recruiting policies and financial aid. "The big schools did not want financial aid based on need," Watson said.

Present regulations allow colleges to either grant aid on athletic ability or grant aid on need. Ivy League colleges grant only on the basis on financial need.

Discussion about a resolution requiring all colleges to consider only the financial condition of a student grew so heated that a roll call was taken.

"In a roll call, everybody knows what you think," Watson said. "I think some of the big schools didn't want to vote the same way as if a show of hands was taken." The motion was defeated, however.

A resolution to require women to follow NCAA regulations was proposed and passed on to the NCAA council. "If that's passed, it'll take all the power from the AIAW," Watson said.