The stand on football taken by the Ivy League presidents is more than a purity code to impress the scandal-conscious public. If carried out it will shake up the Ivy set-up more than it has been since the eight colleges realized ivy grew on all their walls. If this policy is followed, the eight institutions, which have been ambling off in different directions for years, will join in a formal Ivy League-emphasis on the League.

The rule that every team in the circuit will play every other club represents a turnabout for Harvard and Yale, at least. Only a year ago Yale's Bob Hall reminded this department that there was no such thing as an Ivy League--it was an "Ivy Group." The Blue and the Crimson wanted to avoid any organized pact which would commit them to playing Cornell with any regularity, and in the case of Penn, never. Harvard and Yale weren't being stuffy. They simply did not want to get trounced annually nor recruit a team capable of meeting Dr. Stassen's legions on even ground.

Since Penn managed to convince Messrs. Constant and Griswold that it would no longer play naughty, it is obvious there will have to be some changes made in the vicinity of Franklin Field. Penn could only have avoided the impending Ivy boycott by agreeing to follow the new policy since Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and others have no intention of fielding a Penn-style club. This means the Red and Blue will have to start backtracking on Dr. Stassen's one-time aspirations for a national powerhouse. Penn certainly cannot maintain a team able to meet 1952 opponent Notre Dame on even terms and still retain acceptable standing in the Ivy League.

Competition Still Counts

The formation of a definite league should also serve notice to the public and local scribes that contrary to reports of the latter, Harvard meant what Provost Buck said when he asserted we would field a team commensurate with "our natural rivals." Thus Harvard will not cut back further on its schedule, will keep on two or three breathers, and will have an average Ivy team.

If the policy is carried out, the Ivy League will probably isolate itself more from the national picture, since at this point it is apparent that most other conferences have only mild intentions of abandoning professional football despite all the pious talk. Should the Ivy teams all live up to the code, the games should be evenly matched regardless of how good other teams are. The games should draw respectable crowds which will maintain athletic for-all programs without digging further into academic funds.

As a bonus, this recent announcement should also gag local sportswriters who have been clamoring for a formal New England League with Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth playing B.U., B.C., and Holy Cross. There would be little room at present for all of these schools on all-Ivy schedules and furthermore the Ivy policy itself would probably appear too sugar-coated for these gate-receipt, publicity conscious colleges.