Evening star., 1950-10-14

n good thing
Grantland Rice for football.
Everyone knows that. Yet
Leahy and Blaik are to be
praised for their efforts to keep
on winning. There is no good
reason why one university
should continue being better
than other universities. as long
as the standards are the same
and the schedules are on a par.
AS Ben Jones told me once
when he had Whirlaway, Armed
and others, keep on running
against good horses and you'll
get licked"
Among the leaders moving
into action this October Satur-
day who have not yet suffered
defeat we have Army, Cornell,
Stanford, Princeton, Wisconsin,
California, Rice, Texas, SMU.
Georgia (tied twice., Washing
ton, Yale, Clemson, Indiana
(tied once), Vanderbilt. Ken
lucky, Wake Forest (tied once)
and Oklahoma (23 straight).
From this list is our some
what baffled opinion that Army,
Stanford, California, SM U,
Texas, Cornell and possibly
Princeton are in the front rank.
Yet we doubt that any OF these
teams today could beat Mary
land, the team that wrecked
Michigan State. We doubt that
many of them now could beat
Tennessee. Being beaten once
doesn't indicate any loss OF top
class. 1t can happen once to
the best.
The unbeaten teams that have
q chance to fall today are Army
(if Michigan is hot) and Okla
homa, which would be the end
Of its 23-game streak.
Teams Rated by Sections.
It is our guess that the strong
est teams in the country today
can be rated as follows:
East-Army and Cornell.
Southern Conference-Mary-
land and Clemson.
Southeastern Conference -
Tennessee and Kentucky, with
Kentucky in front.
Southwest-Texas and SMU;.
to be decided in November.
Far West-Stanford or Cali
fornia: with Washington ex-
tremely close.
A query came in the other
day asking if we would name the
best three teams in the country
as things look to date. This
doesn't make much sense. Ger
tainly Maryland and Kentucky
would be two of them.
We doubt that Army or STAN
ford could beat either of these
teams. 1t would be close. I can
see nothing in the Midwest
which can beat either. Army's
schedule doesn't give you much
to work with-outside of Michi-
gan and Stanford. Cornell ranks
even with Army and Stanford
or any one else. This is true of
Clemson "a powerful outfit
without a tough schedule. But
Clemson can be a match for
any one. Clemson should finish
the season unbeaten.
Duke, North Carolina, Vir-
ginia and others don't seem to
care for Clemson, year after
year. Clemson was strong 40
years ago under John Heisman.
Clemson is even stronger today.
Ask Missouri. Army and Clem-
son have the schedules that fit
with an unbeaten season. Not
too tough.
Midwest Not So Powerful.
It would be impossible at this
point to rate the leading teams
since the leaders often vary
from 20 to 40 points from one
Saturday to another. How can
Maryland let Georgia run over
her and then run over Michigan
State while Georgia can't beat
weak st. Mary's? Even Wally
Butts couldn't tell you. How
could College of the Pacific and
Loyola run up 86 points in two
games against st. Mary's and
Georgia could score only seven,
after having beaten much
stronger Maryland?
I don't believe Georgia could
ever beat Maryland again-or
Mississippi State beat Tennes-
see. The odd point of this has
an unusual turn-the usually
powerful Midwest has no great
teams this fall-including Notre
Dame and Michigan.
This is a below-par year for
the Midwest-so far, at least.
It is a good year for the East
with Army and Cornell-possi-
bly, Princeton. 1t is a ragged
year for the Southern Confer
ence and a good year for the
Southeast and the Southwest.
And still a doubtful year for the
Far West, which might wind up
unusually good with Stanford,
California and Washington as
standout teams.
North American Newspaper Alliance)