Good, historic backgrounder about changes college presidents tried to make in 1952.
http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/col...ried-something-controversial-1952-got-nowhere
Bulletin: An NCAA oversight committee headed by the Big 12's Bob Bowlsby will study the bloated bowl system, which has swelled to 40 games with more on the horizon, meaning losing teams now stock the supply.
And to think that in 1952, college presidents were so fed up, they moved to banish bowls altogether.
And back then they only had eight.
What stirred up administrators in the early '50s was the game-fixing scandal involving basketball programs at several New York colleges as well as Kentucky. Worried that social evils were spreading through campuses like poison ivy, the American Council on Education appointed a 10-man panel, including SMU's Umphrey Lee, to come up with a plan.
Among the dozen proposals: No one on an athletic staff or connected to the university could offer money or inducements to student-athletes; no fake summer jobs; no coach could make more than the school's highest-paid faculty member; no spring football, no preseason or postseason tournaments; and, most controversial of all, no bowls.
Bowls "contribute nothing to education," committee chair John Hannah told reporters early in 1952. SMU's football history was punctuated with four postseason games, including the '36 Rose Bowl that inspired J. Curtis Sanford to found the Cotton Bowl. Still, Lee was no more sympathetic.
Said Lee: "The pressure -- of a coach feeling he has to have his team in one or the season is a failure -- and the disrupting influence a bowl game throws into the athletic program, caused us to vote unanimously against the postseason game."
Some regions took the sermon more seriously than others. Hannah's school, Michigan State, finished 9-0 in '51, second in the polls -- and stayed home. After Clemson went to the Gator and Maryland to the Sugar, the Southern Conference put both on probation for playing on New Year's Day without permission.
Meanwhile, the recommendations went over in Texas press boxes like a ban on the pregame buffets. Of the eight bowl games played only a couple of weeks earlier, four included schools from the Lone Star State: Baylor (Orange), Houston (Salad), Texas Tech (Sun) and TCU (Cotton).
And then there were the Southwest Conference's ties to the Cotton Bowl, which were to run through 1955.
As it turned out, while the presidents made big headlines, they carried little clout. SMU's NCAA rep, Edwin Mouzon, a vice president of the organization, told reporters at the annual meetings, "I expect that the presidents' recommendations will not have any influence on what we do here."
Not only did the membership pass on the presidents' recommendations, the system grew and grew until, today, two-thirds of FBS schools go bowling. If a president has any problem these days, it's that he can't get enough tickets.
http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/col...ried-something-controversial-1952-got-nowhere
Bulletin: An NCAA oversight committee headed by the Big 12's Bob Bowlsby will study the bloated bowl system, which has swelled to 40 games with more on the horizon, meaning losing teams now stock the supply.
And to think that in 1952, college presidents were so fed up, they moved to banish bowls altogether.
And back then they only had eight.
What stirred up administrators in the early '50s was the game-fixing scandal involving basketball programs at several New York colleges as well as Kentucky. Worried that social evils were spreading through campuses like poison ivy, the American Council on Education appointed a 10-man panel, including SMU's Umphrey Lee, to come up with a plan.
Among the dozen proposals: No one on an athletic staff or connected to the university could offer money or inducements to student-athletes; no fake summer jobs; no coach could make more than the school's highest-paid faculty member; no spring football, no preseason or postseason tournaments; and, most controversial of all, no bowls.
Bowls "contribute nothing to education," committee chair John Hannah told reporters early in 1952. SMU's football history was punctuated with four postseason games, including the '36 Rose Bowl that inspired J. Curtis Sanford to found the Cotton Bowl. Still, Lee was no more sympathetic.
Said Lee: "The pressure -- of a coach feeling he has to have his team in one or the season is a failure -- and the disrupting influence a bowl game throws into the athletic program, caused us to vote unanimously against the postseason game."
Some regions took the sermon more seriously than others. Hannah's school, Michigan State, finished 9-0 in '51, second in the polls -- and stayed home. After Clemson went to the Gator and Maryland to the Sugar, the Southern Conference put both on probation for playing on New Year's Day without permission.
Meanwhile, the recommendations went over in Texas press boxes like a ban on the pregame buffets. Of the eight bowl games played only a couple of weeks earlier, four included schools from the Lone Star State: Baylor (Orange), Houston (Salad), Texas Tech (Sun) and TCU (Cotton).
And then there were the Southwest Conference's ties to the Cotton Bowl, which were to run through 1955.
As it turned out, while the presidents made big headlines, they carried little clout. SMU's NCAA rep, Edwin Mouzon, a vice president of the organization, told reporters at the annual meetings, "I expect that the presidents' recommendations will not have any influence on what we do here."
Not only did the membership pass on the presidents' recommendations, the system grew and grew until, today, two-thirds of FBS schools go bowling. If a president has any problem these days, it's that he can't get enough tickets.
