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Show ' I HE widest gap between coUeg and pro football this fall wil Involve the financial side. The colleges should play to th largest crowds they have evei ! . ' I--- i V known, all at toj prices and reducer expenses, If even part of the Sanitj Code works out The pros, due tc the knockdown and drag-out, cut-your-throat competition between the National Na-tional and the All- GrantlandRice America confer ence, can easilj lead to a financial debacle. I don't believe more than one, possibly pos-sibly two, of the A. A. C. teams car break even. At least four or flv will take a drubbing that runs from $300,000 to $500,000 in losses. Cleveland, Cleve-land, San Francisco and New Yorl might break even, or make a little. In the National league, the losses will be nothing like those In some A. A. C. cities, but due to much heavier pay-roll expenses, ex-penses, there will be few profits. The National league grabbed mosi of the college stars of 1947 Lujack, Conerly, Connor, Layne, Evans, Gilmer, Minisi on and on. The A. A. C. passed up the stars, although al-though Chappuis must be rated one of them. The Chicago Rockets, caught between be-tween the Bears and the Cardinals, two great teams, may take the heaviest financial socking. Possiblj a $500,000 touch. The Brooklyn Dodgers, opening to 16,000 whet they needed 30,000 to break even-badly even-badly beaten in their opener may take the next dipping at $300,000 oi $400,000. The National league is luckier in having such teams as the Giants, Bears, Redskins, Eagles, Ea-gles, Packers, Steelers, etc., established in cities where they have been planted for years. George Marshall of the Redskins is sold out in advance each season, although George and many football writers are not exactly on speaking terms. As long as Mr. Marshal doesn't care, why should anybody else bother? He has a monopoly that also won't make much money in this football war. Tim Mara and George Halas have had the two richest franchises. They should have. They built up pro football. They've been on the job 27 years. There is certainly a place for two big leagues. But in many ways the new league was badly arranged and badly directed as its $4,000,000 losses prove. What will happen, nobody knows. But it may not be pleasant readins for any stockholder in either league. The College Side On the playing side, the pros will have a great season. But the colleges col-leges will have an even greatei playing season plus a far more cheerful financial side. This should be one of the top years of college football, no matter what section you turn to. The East faces one of its mosi Interesting campaigns Penn State, Army, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Co-lumbia, Navy, Rutgers, Holy Cross, Villanova, Yale, Harvard, Dart mouth, Boston College on and on, Here Penn State is the team to beat. Then move to the Midwest look at what they have to offer: Notre Dame, Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota Minne-sota and Northwestern. Now to the Southwest: S. M. U., T. C. U., Texai and Rice. The South presents such teams as North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Alabama, Georgia. I can give you over 50 college col-lege squads along a high level who will draw capacity crowds. For example. Southern California Califor-nia may win no title of any sort. But it will outdraw any pro team at least two to one on the financial finan-cial side. So will Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and California. Cali-fornia. Under the new Sanity Code, thl colleges won't be involved in anj expenses involved in building ui their teams. This problem will be put up to the alumni. In the old days, some footbal players would "die for dear oli Rutgers." Now some rather wealthy alumnus will go broke for his team whether it is in the Big Nine, thl South, the Southwest or the East. Athletes Wont Suffer But don't let anyone tell you tha: any section has gone shy in takinj care of its athletes. Not by anj university, or by any college, bui by certain proud and rather wealthj citizens who might be operatinj from New York or Chicago or anj other spot. The Sanity Code isn't going ti work perfectly. But it should help At least there might be a reductioi from the $5,000 and $10,000 paid t certain stars in many cases mor than the pros get. Virginia's refusal to adopt th N. C. A. A. Sanity Code has some what shaken the apple cart. Oni penalty Is refusal to let the offendei play an N. C. A. A. team. |