Yale Breaks with NCAA On TV Football Policies

Yale University revealed yesterday in a statement to the CRIMSON that it would not abide by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's football TV policy for the 1953 season. The Yale statement followed a similar announcement by Harvard last week.

Charles M. O'Hearn, assistant to President A. Whitney Griswold, stated that Yale was taking its action "on principle."

"We decided not to go along with the NCAA plan because we felt we should be responsible only to ourselves for our own decisions. We are acting independently on this issue and will do so on all policy issues," O'Hearn stated.

The Yale official said that there were no present plans for televising any Eli football games next fall. But he would not say that television possibilities were out of the question.

O'Hearn indicated that Yale's decision was strongly opposed by Robert Hall, Yale athletic director who resigned last week. Hall had been Chairman of the NCAA Committee which formed the TV blackout policy. "Since Mr. Hall resigned from our policy committee which decided to break with the NCAA TV program, we can safely assume that he wasn't in accord with its decision," O'Hearn said.

No Break

O'Hearn emphasized that Yale's action did not in any way indicate a complete break with the NCAA. "We still consider ourselves members in good standing, and are only acting independently on this issue," he said.

Yale's move confirmed a report by the CRIMSON last week that Yale and Princeton would both reveal opposition to the NCAA's TV policy, following similar action by Harvard. In the same story, the CRIMSON said that there was "deep dissatisfaction with some of the NCAA policies among the Ivy League college heads."

Princeton earlier this week denied that it would issue any statements or protests concerning the NCAA television policy in the near future. Nevertheless, high Princeton officials let it be known for publication that they had voted against the NCAA TV plan and felt it might be against present anti-trust laws.

Although a high university official last week predicted that the TV dispute was the first step in a complete severance with the NCAA within 12 months, Yale and Princeton were careful to make it clear that they were not at this time considering making any such break. However, O'Hearn made it clear that Yale would not consider itself bound by NCAA policy in the event of conflict with Yale policy. "Yale will not follow anyone else's policy," he asserted.

Members of the Harvard Alumni Com- mittee on Athletics, according to the Boston Herald, also asserted flatly last week that Harvard had no intention of withdrawing from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The Herald article, however, which carried no names, made it clear that neither the television code nor Harvard's status in the NCAA were discussed at the last meeting of the Alumni Association.

Yale's action yesterday was further indication that the resignation of athletic director Hall was not solely to "enter business." Hall Monday denied that he had had any large athletic policy breaks with President Griswold, as the CRIMSON reported last week