Scorecard

1.6 AND ALL THAT

It now seems likely that the NCAA basketball championships will be held without Princeton, the NCAA fencing championships without Columbia, the NCAA hockey championships without Cornell and the NCAA swimming championships without Yale. Which is a pity since, to varying degrees, all four teams would have had good shots at the titles. Princeton is the fifth-ranked basketball team in the country; Columbia, the 1965 NCAA fencing champion, has already beaten last year's winner, NYU; Cornell has one of the two best hockey teams in the East; and the Yale swimmers would be a contender even if they didn't include Don Schollander.

As it was last year, the reason for the Ivies' absence is the unwillingness of the presidents of the league's schools to come to terms with the NCAA rule which requires that, to be eligible for a championship, student-athletes 1) show promise of doing 1.6 (or C—) work upon admission and 2) actually do 1.6 work.

The Ivy League, and a number of other schools, are against the 1.6 rule because they claim it violates a school's autonomy: its right to determine its admissions policy and eligibility requirements. In line with what we said a year ago (SI, March 21), this principle or point of honor seems to us to be so lofty or noble as to be faintly ludicrous—indeed, more becoming Burt L. Standish's version of the Ivy League—especially since the rule in no way dictates who a school may or may not admit, but merely states, with great liberality, who may not compete.

At the NCAA convention in Houston earlier this month, the ECAC, to which the Ivy League belongs, sought to eliminate the 1.6 rule, but was outvoted 153-113. However, only 83 of the 146 eligible ECAC members were represented. Next year the NCAA will meet in New York, where, presumably, more ECAC representatives will find it convenient to attend, and the rule may then be reinterpreted or repealed.

However, this is of little comfort to those now competing in basketball for Princeton, hockey for Cornell, fencing for Columbia and swimming for Yale. The Ivy League presidents are likely to be around for some time, but many of these athletes won't. To pose just one question: Is it meet that Schollander, who won four gold medals for his country in the Tokyo Olympics, cannot win just one NCAA medal for Yale?

END-ELIGIBLE PLAY

It's not that Steve Spurrier doesn't have room for another trophy alongside the Heisman, the Washington Touchdown Club award, the Outstanding Florida Sports Personality award, the Nashville Banner Southeastern Conference Most Valuable Player award and the Birmingham Quarterback Club Southeastern Back of the Year award. It's just that, marvelous as he may be, Spurrier can't be in two places at the same time.

Last Saturday the Atlanta Touchdown Club wanted to give him the Southeast Back of the Year award, but that night Spurrier had to be in Daytona Beach, Fla. to accept a trophy as Florida's Outstanding Football Player.

So the Atlanta Touchdown Club presented the Southeast Back of the Year award to Ray Perkins of Alabama. Under the circumstances, we guess it's O.K. that Perkins is a split end.