The Not-So-Big Ten

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Illinois lost, 26-7, to Southern Methodist. Minnesota got shut out by Missouri, 24-0. Indiana was embarrassed, 20-10, by little Miami of Ohio. Oh, well, shrugged Midwestern football fans, accidents will happen. But then Michigan's No. 7-ranked Wolverines were upset, 21-7, by unranked North Carolina, and Washington -- a team that had been blanked 10-0 by the Air Force Academy a week before -- rolled up 413 yds. on the ground to beat Ohio State, 38-22. Even before last Saturday's game, when Nebraska smashed Wisconsin, 31-3, the Chicago Daily News asked: WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE BIG TEN?

To For almost four decades, the Intercollegiate Conference, otherwise known as the Big Ten, has dominated U.S. college football -- producing more national champions (13) and more All-Americas (250-odd), gleefully running up the scores against outmanned intersectional opponents. "When you're winning," shrugged Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes, "you don't need friends." And any Big Ten coach who did not win was likely to get the classic advice from his alumni: "The Super Chief pulls out of town in 20 minutes. Be under it."

All that is changed now. Not only is the Big Ten losing--14 out of 25 intersectional games so far this season--it seems to be resigned to losing. Tn Minneapolis, after his Jayhawkers had beaten Minnesota, 16-14, Kansas Coach Jack Mitchell warned: "You keep raising your grade average and your football will soon be down to the caliber of the Ivy League."* The Big Ten has taken some steps in that direction. Its grade-point requirement for freshmen on athletic scholarships is 1.7--. 1 higher than the N.C.A.A.'s own. Big Ten schools are limited to a total of 30 foot ball scholarships for freshmen each year --as compared with 50 for the University of Texas. They also are forbidden to "redshirt" prospects--putting them on a five-year program, keeping them out of action as sophomores in order to beef them up. Redshirting is common practice in the Southeastern Conference, the Southwest Conference, the Pacific Eight, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Midwest's Big Eight.

Of course, it is still possible for a Big Ten football player to major in physical education or "recreation," which he may have trouble flunking, since his coach is likely to be one of his professors. At Ohio State there is an under graduate course in "football theory," taught by Woody Hayes.

Still, there is a diminishing interest among football players in such "snap" courses, according to Jack Mollenkoof, the coach at Purdue, one of the few Big Ten schools with a winning record (4-1) this year. Mollenkopf estimates that 15% of his players are majoring in "some form of economics." Skeptics might suggest it was Pro Football. But Coach Duffy Daugherty of Michigan State, the only Big Ten school that was still undefeated last week (after downing Michigan, 20-7), insists that all his friends are amateurs. What's more, their civil rights are being violated by the academic requirements and anti-redshirt rules. Said Duffy: "You aren't forbidden to play in the band if you don't graduate in four years."

When they aren't busy shrinking the Big Ten, the big teams get their kicks out of belting each other around. In the Southwest last week, Underdog (by 12 points) Baylor ended Arkansas's 24-game regular-season winning streak, 7-0. Oklahoma beat Archrival Texas for the first time in nine years, 18-9. And Notre Dame proved that its earlier victories over Purdue (26-14) and Northwestern (35-7) were no flukes. Sophomore Quarterback Terry Hanratty completed eleven passes, and Sophomore End Jim Seymour caught eight of them, as the Fighting Irish rolled to a 35-0 half-time lead against previously unbeaten Army. The score stayed the same through the second half, mostly because Irish Coach Ara Parseghian kept his first string on the bench.

*Or up. Who ranked No. 1 in the nation in rushing last week? Harvard.

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