The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-30
Princeton Tops Eastern
Football Ranking for 1920
Harvard Second and Penn
State Third in the
'Herald's' Rating.
BY DANIEL.

While still another and somewhat i'm
portant result-that Of the Boston Col
lege-Holy Cross game to be played In
the Hub on Saturday-remains TO be
recorded. we believe that we may at
this time. with as much safety as is
possible in so hazardous an undertake
ing. tackle the proposition OF ranking
the leading football teams of the East
for the season of 1890. We have, as has
been our custom for some years. rated
the top twenty.
Before we enter into our ranking II
might be we'll to outline the system
which guides that work. Here and
there the list may seem to contradict
itself For example, we find Dart
mouth, which was defeated by SYRIA
cuse by 10 TO 0. placed In sixth position.
while Syracuse is no higher than
eleventh Holy Cross, which defeated
Syracuse, is assigned a rating two
places lower than the Orange.
We have rated the teams on their
records for the entire season and on
our conception of their strength in their
final games-on cross comparisons of
performances, on arithmetic and on per-
sonal opinlon-and on opinion OF
coaches, players and officials.
Princeton, in our opinion, was the
strongest team in the East. and per-
haps In all the United States. The
Tigers were tied by Harvard, IA to IA,
but they showed in that contest that
they had the edge on the Crimson. This
opinion was confirmed when Harvard
met Yale and was able TO win only by
kicking field goals, 3 to 0, Princeton
had defeated Yale by 20 to 0-two touch
downs and two field goals.
Tigers Most Powerful.
Comparative scores usually count for
very little in football. But in this case
it so happens that they tell a truth.
The Princeton team which defeated the
Ellis was the most powerful-the speed
lest and most intelligent-seen in the
East in 1920 We believe that in this
opinion we have support which lacks
neither quantity nor quality among
critics OF the game.
Harvard WAS the second best eleven
of tho section. That is as certain to
US as is the supremacy of the orange
and Black The Crimson showed an
attack which was second only to that
of Princeton. and developed great de-
fence for the Yale game.
Having passed the top two. we find
ourselves afloat in the sea OF opinion.
Third place lay between Penn state ana
Pittsburg. which played a scoreless tie
on Thanksgiving Day Those who saw
that contest came away with the I'M
preston that II Davies had not been hurt
early in the shndg Pittsburg would
have won The Painters threatened
more menacingly than did Penn State
However, Penn State went into that
game with a far better performance
against Pennsylvania than Pittsburg
was able to show. Penn State also had
defeated Dartmouth. IA to Z. and had
done other impressive things. And II
Penn state was tied by Lehigh, Pitts
burg was tied by Syracuse. SO 1t was
to Penn State that we gave third place,
with Pittsburg fourth.
Boston va. Dartmouth.
Fifth position we accorded to Boston
College. which may be even a better
team than we think. And likewise. some
may hold that we have flattered the
Hub outfit too greatly on the strength.
perhaps, of victory over Yale team
which was not ready for 1t. However.
we saw that game at New Haven and
came away with certain definite Inn
pressions about this eleven of Frank
Cavanaugh's, which had been half
formed while watching II defeat Ford
ham. Its performance against George