Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-12-05
PLAN A "BLG FIVE"
FOR. WEST in 1910
MICHIGAN, MlhAssoTA, CHICAGO
ILLINOIS AND, WISCONSIN
TO COMBINE. x
SCHEME IS LIKELY TO WIN
Sentiment Appears to b IN Favor Of
Letting the Wolverines Back into
the Fold If They Ask for It-Yost
Is Reelected.

Will there be big Five" instead
of a big Eight" in western football
next season?
This question is going the rounds OF
football enthusiasts and the general
impression is that the big Five" will
win. Michigan, having attained Its
great desire to defeat Pennsylvania Is
now in position where she can ask
! to be taken back into the fold without
feeling Inundated. Several seasons
ago Michigan felt that she was OF a
higher class than the western confer
ence teams and she fixed up game
with Pennsylvania. For three years
Pennsylvania trounced the Wolver-
ines. Then Yost got together a bunch
for 1909 that humbled the Quakers and
now Michigan feels that she can get
back into the fold without shedding
any of her dignity.
Yost has been elected Michigan's
coach for another term of two years,
and if Michigan returns to the confer
ence the coach will have to be made a
member of the faculty in compliance
with the conference rules. 1t has been
suggested that the rules can be
changed so as to let Michigan In with
out making her coach a member OF
the faculty. Announcement has been
made that Pennsylvania will offer
Michigan a two years contract, and
the Wolverines will accept 1t. This
would not prevent Michigan becoming
a member of the "Big Five" Chicago
also will have its contract with Cor
nell.
Chicago will offer strong objection
to the training table, and sentiment
expressed at the Midway school indi-
Gates that the Maroons may block the
return of Michigan to the conference
on that score.
Faculty representatives of the "big
eight" colleges are billed to meet In
Chicago in January In a special ses'
sion to consider the question OF reor-
ganization of the conference group and
possibly to definitely accomplish the
threatened breaking of ties between
the leading western universities.
According to leaders in the big
eight" situation, the proposal to form
"big five" Of Chicago, Michigan, Min
nesota. Wisconsin and Illinois will be
the real subject of discussion at the
meeting.
While members of the big eight"
have been slow to admit that the con-
ference body had been weakened by
recent events, the recent exploitation
: of a big four" and now OF the big
. five" has met with favor from several
of the colleges. The other schools, 1t
Is believed, desire q showdown at
once and an explanation why they are
considered fit candidates for a little
four"
Michigan's board of control Of ath-
tettcs has promised that It will take
whatever action the undergraduates
advocate and as large part of the
student body favors return to the
western alliance, provided the confer
ence schools will grant a request for
reinstatement, there is sure to be q
hard fight.
! The Michigan Daily, which has de-
rlared itself in favor of a return to the
conference, recently said:
"Michigan's recent athletic victories
over Pennsylvania and Minnesota
have done much to restore its pres
tige: they silenced the critics, who
would have had us believe that Field
Ing H. Yost had been outwitted by new
football, and they served to show the
east that elsewhere than over the AL
leghanies is the game of football
known and enjoyed. But they did
more than this: they made possible q
PAGES SUCCESSOR AS c