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Show I SPOR TLIGH T j Bowl Games Approaching Crisis I By GRANTLAND RICE I NEW YORK An amazing number of letters have come to us both for and against Bowl games. Those against the Bowls are not all from the Ivy League country, or from the Big Ten or the Far West, where only two teams can be involved. Many come from the South. The Cotton, Sugar, Orange and Gator Bowls involve a vast sweep of territory, from Texas to Florida. In my opinion the Bowl situation is easily solved. Here is the solution play all the bowl games. But divide most of the money among the teams of the Conference involved. go out for a winner, or to arrangf'. Bowl schedules most likely to in" sure Bowl bids. No team Is going to Invest $100,000 or more In order to get ', expenses and $20,000 or $25,000. But when the surplus from the !l Bowls Is divided among many 11 other teams there can be no '' complaint abont financial con- 1 centratlon on a few. is We have the feeling that those a;i the head of Bowl organizations anr1 leading teams from Various Con' ferences don't quite appreciate this movement now gaining headwa;:( against Bowl play. There is no denying the fact thai Bowl receipts, from $100,000 to $125 000, are at least partly responsible for the mad stampede to build ujJ winning combinations. Cut down ths financial killing and you can savE the Bowls. We are strongly for th j. Bowls if properly - directed, if re moved from the taint of overcom mercialism. A( Unless certain changes are madi5l at an early date we feel the BowLi, will be in a bad way, ruled out Southern and Southeastern Confer ences. The Big Ten has its only Bow.e game conducted under the plau, we've suggested. Notre Dame ann. the Ivy League are not interestede The Bowl bunch might as well ge busy. ;: Drawing Cards 1j Michigan and Ohio State shout outdraw any other teams this sesa son for two reasons they both hav violent and enthusiastic partisan! F and both have tremendous stadiume that can handle 97,000 and 78,01? spectators. y. Michigan, for example, played ID more than 71,000 at Champaign la a driving snowstorm once this yeai d That's drawing power. g But perhaps the most consisted record of them all belongs to Noti-a Dame. Year in and year out ttl Irish pack them in. :; "I have been athletic publicitb man at Notre Dame for six years.S Charlie Callahan told me a day ( two ago. "In that time we havj, played over 50 games. Yet I'd sad: we've had only five games thEii were not sellouts. And these wees close to sellouts. This means bold at home and on the road. Thosg five non-sellout games were only 0 few hundred shy. In the others ota sellouts were complete." Notre Dame, however, seats onV-56,000 onV-56,000 at South Bend. The Maraui ing Irish get no shot at Michigan 97,000 stadium, Ohio State's 78,0( stands, Yale's 70,000 Bowl, or Pb' adelphia's 104,000 Sesquicentennu Purdue, Indiana, Navy, Iowa, etc won't average over 40,000 capacit; Grantland Ric. Don,t S 1 v e tte winning or Bowl team more than all audited expenses expens-es and around $20,000. Or maybe $25,000 profit. Let the Southern or Southeastern or Southwestern Circuit Cir-cuit split the rest. The Idea is that no team should make a big profit out of Bowl games through overpaying, overpay-ing, overscouting, oversubsidiz-Ing oversubsidiz-Ing football players a common practice today, where you can be sure the leading teams will be far overpaid. We can see no harm in the leading lead-ing Bowls if handled under such conditions. I can slip a tip to the Sugar and Orange Bowls. They are headed for certain trouble if they maintain their present method. The Southern Conference has long been on record, 14 to 1, against Bowl competition. Vanderbilt is also heading a Southeastern South-eastern revolt that is gaining considerable con-siderable support. We are among many others who would hate to see the Bowls canceled can-celed through bad handling, when they might be carried on under smarter direction. As Things Are Now Today the Southern Conference, the Southeastern Conference and the Southwestern Conference are all involved in Bowl bids. Before Georgia Tech's acceptance of the recent invitation to play in the Orange Bowl, January 1, Bobby Dodds, Georgia Tech's smart coach, said that, "Only the 1950 Bowl winners, win-ners, Tennessee and Kentucky, were solvent in the South. They got over $100,000 for postseason appearances. One must get a Bowl bid to break even." This is true and it Is also a bad thing. But if the big financial stake were scattered around the teams of the Conference there would no longer be any mad rush over to |