Evening star., 1951-04-29
New Grid Scheduling
Methods Likely in
Southern Conference

ball seemed imminent last night
after Charleston Is. c. news
paper reported that plans for a
new Dixie Football Conference,
embracing teams from both the
Southern and Southeastern Con-
ferences, were in the wind.
The University of Maryland was
one Of IL teams reported inter-
ested in joining the new league,
but Jim Tatum, the Terps' foot
ball coach and director of ath-
letics. discounted this. He said he
had been approached about mem
bership in a new conference sew
eral years ago, but had heard
nothing about the group listed in
a story carried by the Charleston
Evening Post.
The newspaper said the pro-
posed conference would include
Maryland, South Carolina. Geor-
gia Tech, Georgia, North Carolina,
Alabama, Tennessee, Miami Of
Florida, Louisiana State, Duke, Tu-
lane and either Vanderbilt or Ken
lucky.
Tatum said proposals were made
two or three years ago to form
a league including such schools
as West Virginia, Boston Univer-
lsity. Syracuse, Penn State, New
York University and Pittsburgh,
and another that would take in
Clemson. North Carolina. Virginia,
Duke, North Carolina State, and
Maryland, but that nothing had
come Of the preliminary talks.
Tatum said he preferred not to
comment on the latest report,
which said athletic directors of the
IL schools held secret meetings last
year and agreed to keep their
views quiet. He indicated, how
ever, that he would favor a change
in the Southern Conference
method of deciding the football
championship, noting that Wash
Iington and Lee won the title last
year without meeting any of sew
leral top-ranking conference rivals,
including Maryland.
Max Harrington, George Wash
ington University's director of
athletics and president of the
Southern Conference, said meet
ing is scheduled next Friday and
Saturday at Richmond, but that
it had been called merely to dis
cusS suggestions made by presi-
dents of conference schools at
their meeting a couple of months
ago.
Favors Two Divisions.
Harrington said he. favored a
plan of dividing conference foot
ball teams into two divisions, as
in baseball. and having cham
|pionship playoff game between the
divisional leaders. He said the
conference has no official football
champion. but that the winner
merely gets the newspaper de-
cision." A playoff would decide
the true champion, he added.
'Tatum, discussing the same
plan. said he definitely would
favor that" and that he thought
a couple of flights was the only
way of solving the problem.
harrington said conference off,
cials hoped to use the same sys-
tenn in basketball. with possibly
the four top teams from each di-
vision meeting in a championship
tournament.
harrington said the divisional
plan had been successful in base
ball and might be substantially
profitable in football. Conference
football teams contribute only S
per cent Of their receipts from
post-seaSon bowl games to the
conference treasury, harrington
said, and a championship game
would add much more to the
Golfers.
A meeting Of the executive
meeting with Commissioner WAL
lac Wade on Friday will precede
the league meeting Saturday, but
Harrington said this group only
would decide which matters to
discuss first and the order of
business for the Saturday session,