Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-12-01
FAVORS BIG ,
CONFERENCE
IN THE EAST
H E m a n, Pennsylvania
Coach, Thinks There Is
Need for New System.
BY NORMAN e. BROWN.

AASA9AAAolk VI LIS CnlVGTAl.
ty OF Pennsylvania football team, tina,
the east Is sorely in need Of a well
n conference voices the
thought of many football critics,
as 1t does, from one of the
greatest coaches in the game. this
new plea ought to at least arouse o n
SIDERABLE discussion and cause college
authorities to give the matter added
between now and next foot
ball season. - ~
present a in the easr has
SHOWN how. badly such an orKan1za-
uon as the "HHBig Ten" has become
neeaeo IN the east. There are three
ur TOUR powerful elevens in that Sec
ton which can claim the title. Yet
tnere Is no way of comparing their
relative strength
Pennsylvania, Penn State, Syracuse,
Dartmouth. w, and j.. Lafayette'
Pittsburgh. Cornell and one or two
otner elevens ishow. strength every
year on a par with that of Yale Har.
varo' Princeton, the Army ana the
tsavy. But because only three or -four
y! these schools meet in any given
sroup there is no chance to settle fair
- 'he question of supremacy. -
Times Have Changed.
Ten and twenty years ago. before
q newspaper methods and the
popularity of the sport had
aoe the activities Of the various col
reyes OF national interest. THE tea ms
satlsned the student body. the, old
srads and other adherents by making
= -creditable showing against their
~neIeoltary rivals. Harvard, Yale and
rrinceton lived to maui each other
ron q football standpoint. Cornell
anu dartmouth pointed their teams
NANNY to win in their annua battle
Lafayette and w. and j., Syracuse ana
rittsourgh and other rivals were con
tent each year to ring up the larger
score IN those duals. Content. too.
were the fans to watch the success OF
rivals. S
Interest Grown.
PUT football has become OF such
national interest that It has rrown
beyond the confines Of the colleges
anu q tneir traditions. The attendance
y rom 40 GOO to 10000 persons at
tne Dlg games where the seating ca
paclty wlll permit, indicates to what
ested in the college elevens.
themselves have come to
watch the seasons struggles from a
national viewpoint, and do not conHne
tnelr interest to watching and prayinx
ZOE the success of their alma matters.
Ihese conditions naturally create
the desire to see the real Champions
properly crowned. 4
]; / III i. ia Good Example.
The big Ten" conference has
LOWE. what an organised football
10y can do to promote the college
~ oEtss7%For a quarter of, a century
skn esbigs western colleges have had their
saoEkapisation. ~
With uniform eligibility, playing
M officiating rules the colleges in the
Chicago, I'LL
nois, Wisconsin. Minnesota, and the
others have become institutions of ma
>tional renown in the sport world.
FARTHER west the Missouri Valley
conference and other similar bodies
have put the colleges in Those terri.
tories on a firm basis on the gridiron
ana nave done much to popularize
these colleges and keep the world in
formed of their activities.
Eastern critics will admit that the
west has surpassed the east in con-
Quoting the grid spo The western
teams showed that IN the eastern
nelds. The ~conferance is the logical
metnod Tor the east to employ to as
SSAo ~ Gil equal IOOt.ng with the
Docs Not Kin Traditions.
Conference football does. not kill
traditional rivalry! Michigan and
Ohio State fight, not for conference
honors but for honors Of o. s. U. and
Michigan when they meet. Indiana
and Purdue, little sisters in the CON
ference, annually wage the same de-
termined and grim battle for victory
over each other.
BY the same token Yale, Harvard
and Princeton would still retain their
private rivalry. The other lated riv-
ais could claw at each others .throats.
But tere would be system, a basis Tor
comparison and greater public interest
IN the eastern grid sport II the sched-
ules Of all the teams were conducted
on some regularly organized basisx =.
It will come some time. s