Show v e eC V A f I Y I 0 C Va I c l RICE I I A only a minor por pori portion i APPARENTLY A tion of football followers ad adI I diets old grads and ond others under understand understand I stand just what a football schedule means For example playing Army lr Ir these days means you haven't a s chance to be ever eve I close Playing Nav lik like likely I means you arc are I Ily ly to be beaten Not I tr always But nearly nearl I always That Is a 3 H Hof of today Army and I Navy had the tw best teams in and they Uley will havethe have hava havethe the two best team V y l In 1946 1940 a l But so far tar as an Grantland Rice national ranking goes weve we've drawn a flock of complaints especially from rom the Midwest about the quality 01 ol many southern schedules I recall some years back on ono oni Midwesterner writes when Bob Neyland at at Tennessee took nc chances of defeat Neyland was o D great coach and he hid had h d great teams But he rarely played over three I hard games a year with many soft spots planted In between In my opinion this has hu been true i i of Alabama this season Everyone knows Frank Thomas Is an good coach and that Alabama Alabama Alabama Ala Ala- bama Is one of the best teams Inthe ID is the country But there was no wa way to prove this by playing only three hard games games Tennessee and Georgia I would like to have seen Alabama tested by Army Navy Indiana In In- n. n diana dlana Pennsylvania Oklahoma A. A I and M. M or Michigan That's wh Why I dont don't think Alabama should have I been rated over Navy and Indiana or Oklahoma A. A and M. M After Afler all aU alla I a national ranking gets you nowhere while a Bowl game gets you from fromI I to I Alabama will tell you the Crimson Crimson Crim I son Tide could get no stronger outside out side schedule This is true But Bu many of their opponents east and west will also tell you they are not Interested In ha southern teams that have so many football scholarships and developed Bowl-developed teams The Bowl Complex I have the feeling that the Bowl complex has set southern football back In a schedule way For example example ex ex- ample two of my favorite southern teams are Clemson and Auburn whose elevens go back 40 to or 45 years Once they begin winning they are too often dropped from southern schedules The reason reason- too tough Tennessee dropped Auburn alter after a close 7 0 margin In 1938 that almost kept Tennessee out of an Orange Bowl meeting with Oklahoma Ok Ok- lahoma Georgia Tech I understand under stand has dropped Clemson after alter Clemson's late mop The South has has given Clemson and Auburn all the worst of at it and yet traditionally they belong high up I The various Bowls apparently are here to stay But they have built I up two armed hostile camps The Midwest Including the Big Ten plus Notre Dame have no Bowl Neither has the Ivy Lea League e. e plus Army and Navy This leaves Bowl selections to the West coast the Southwest the South and one or two stray eastern or northern teams such as Boston College College College Col Col- Col- Col lege and Holy Cross From the South the teams willing to play a tough schedule and take a R chance are Duke and Georgia Tech Duke has been willing to face Army and Navy Duke was unbeaten en outside of ol these two games Georgia Georgia Georgia Geor Geor- gia Tech has been willing to meet Navy and Notre Dame always tough customers And Duke and Georgia Tech also meet The last time a strong Alabama team played Georgia and Georgia Tech Alabama lost both games Tulane Also Takes Risks Duke and Georgia Tech play by all odds the hardest schedules In ha the South Tulane Is also willing to take a bigger gamble The Southwest also sticks sUcks with Its It own own from Oklahoma Okla Okla- homa to Texas although Tulsa Is willing to move away from Its own home borne area Tulsa played Indiana ludiana this last season But outside of ol Duke and Georgia Tech no other southern team in in- including including eluding Alabama played a schedule even close to Indiana's Indiana test with a menu that Included Michigan Northwestern Illinois Nebraska Iowa Tulsa Minnesota Pittsburgh and Purdue The South has turned out too many great football teams too many leading football coaches and too many football stars to permit the various Bowl collections to dominate dom dom- mate irate its schedules and its play The Bowls taken in hi their stride are all right as postseason Ins fill but completely unimportant contributions contri contri- to any national ranking But the Bowl games should not be used in making schedules to insure Bowl invitations especially In the South which has contributed too much to football to give much of its attention to any Bowls in its sched sched-I sched ule arrangements ments After all all Duke and Georgia Tech are not the only good football teams in the Sou South y I The North and the Midwest will er get to see GUmer Gilmer and Mancha two of ol the country's best I |