Holy Cross has been long been one of the dominant small college football powers in the area, posting a 25-7-1 slate over the past three years.

This year the Cross is 3-4-1, and many Crusade watchers spell the reason C-O-L-O-N-I-A-L.

"Colonial"--not as in Colonial All-Beef Franks or Colonial America--but as in the Colonial League.

Over the summer, the presidents of Holy Cross, Colgate, Lafayette Lehigh, Bucknell and Davidson got together and decided to incorporate their school--all of similar sizes and background into a football conference.

Which probably sounded like a fair idea to the coaches of these schools until further details of the league--which doesn't begin official operation until next year--came out.

One imagines that as Crusader mentor Rick Carter was reading the proposal over his bowl of Wheaties, he reached the issue of scholarships--and nearly choked to death.

You see, the Colonial League doesn't allow its members to give out scholarships. Now if you're the coach of the Bucknell Bison, that's no big deal because you don't give them out currently. But if you're Rick Carter, that's a VERY BIG DEAL.

With 70 scholarship players on its current squad, the Cross football program stands to be hurt immensely by the no-scholarship rule--which will be implemented in 1988.

And although there are ways to get around the rule, e.g. increased financial aid, one imagines that Rick Carter had a few choice words to say about the Colonial League after he finished his reading of the charter.

Which brings us back to this year. The scholarship rule won't take effect for several years and the league itself isn't yet in operation, but the Cross must feel like people who have seen the future and know the destruction it will bring.

And Carter--one of the top coaches in Division I-AA--is like the once and future king, only his future doesn't appear to be with the Crusaders.

Of course a lot of other factors have contributed to the lowering of the Cross, but you can't help but think that Holy Cross's fate was sealed by its president over the summer--far, far away from the gridiron.

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Anyway, the picks:

HARVARD 7, HOLY CROSS 6. This game boils down to Gill "The Thrill" Fenerty against the Harvard secondary. Harvard scores a touchdown when a Fenerty option pass is tipped up into the air by an inept receiver and intercepted by Harvard safety Cecil Cox, who returns it for a touchdown.