Evening star., 1943-10-23
Two Grid Games Today Bear Heavily on Bowl PossibiLte
Two Southwesterns,
u. ). T.. and Pacific
In Telling Clashes
BY GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent Of The Star

special correspondent OF The Star.
NEW YORK, Oct. % (NANA).-
There were to be two bowl meetings
today of more than average impor-
tance, covering a big part of the
country-possibly from Louisiana to
California.
One was to be the collision be-
tween University of Southern Cali
fornia and Stages College OF the
Pacific. The other was to bring to-
gether Southwestern Of Texas and
Southwestern Institute of Louisiana
All four have remained unbeaten
to date-and the first three have had
to roll back some good teams to get
where they are.
At least three of the four will re-
main potential bowl candidates un-
less, Of course, they are over
Whelmed.
For after all, there won't be toe
many bowl teams this season. Don't
forget last season that Georgia, Ala
bama. Tennessee, Georgia Tech
Texas and Boston College-all bowl
headliners-all had been beaten at
least once. Alabama had been beater,
three times. Boston College had suf-
fered complete massacre from Holy
Gross and Georgia had suffered q
crushing defeat from Auburn.
Yet they all helped to pack four
bowls.
Few Unbeaten Teams Likely.
There will be few unbeaten teams
this fall in the upper brackets. One
of them should be Purdue, off any
bowl reservation. Another could be
Notre Dame, also beyond any bowl
reach.
I don't believe Southwestern OF
Texas. with SO many stars from the
vast domain of Texas, will be thrown
for a loss.
The winner of the Southern Cali
fornia college of Pacific entangle-
ment should get safely through.
I don't believe Pennsylvania can
steer her way safely by Army, Navy
and Cornell. 1t might happen. I
doubt it.
Army and Navy have only an out
side chance of escaping with clean
records-and they also are beyond
any bowl reach. Duke and North
Carolina. plus Georgia Tech, al
ready have been beaten-and yet all
three qualify in the bowl class un-
less they step into further devasta-
ton.
Being Navy schools. I have no
idea whether they will be allowed
to play on January l or whether
they will have any good men left
by that date.
Just at this moment, so far as the
1943 unbeaten are concerned, I Of
fer the following nominations:
l. Purdue A fine team with
lighter opposition.
2. Notre Dame-Depending large
ly on how many men the Irish lose.
3. Southwestern of Texas-A fair
ly sure bet, especially after todays
harder game.
Some Bowl Possibilities.
Largely through travel arrange
ments various bowls will have to
depend largely on the South, the
Southwest and the Far West
Among those left we get Duke,
Georgia Tech, North Carolina. Tu-
lane and l.. S. u from the South;
Texas, Texas A. and M. and South
western from the Southwest.
There are two teams in a peculiar
spot. They are Washington from
the West Coast, one of the best with
no schedule to play, and Southwest
ern Institute, packed with stars, and
nobody to meet. These two have
enough talent to meet almost any
one.
Georgia Tech always has an in
teresting squad. But after being
overwhelmed by Notre Dame. there
is Navy today and Duke later on.
On this next occasion there will
be no national championship at
stake in any bowl. There wasn't
last year when Ohio State. rated
the ccuntry's best team, didn't COM
pete.
The main bowl idea will be to get
eight good teams, if that many are
left after graduation and the scat
tering that follows.
And the matter of transportation,
plus time away from war duties, will
be an important ingredient.