NCAA Asks to Televise '54 Harvard-Yale Game

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has asked for University permission to televise the 1954 Harvard-Yale football game.

The proposal, which would probably bring $30,000 to the University, will force a climax to Harvard's squabble with the NCAA over football telecasts.

Legal aspects of the problem have been studied by the University's lawyers for the past two weeks, and the final decision has been left with President Pusey.

Last spring, the University, after a lengthy consultation with its lawyers, decided to break with the NCAA over television. Although there had been no offer to televise Harvard games at that time, the University made its decision on two points.

First, the officials expressed Harvard's desire to determine its policy independently of any national organization. Secondly, University lawyers recommended that the NCAA regulations were against anti-trust laws.

Thus, the NCAA's recent offer may be a conciliatory attempt to buy off Harvard and Yale--which also broke off on the TV stand--resistance to the television policies.

Asa Bushnell, eastern head of the Association, last night denied that the NCAA had made any offer. But he based his statement solely on the fact that the group has not yet found a sponsor for its 1954 schedule. It is known, however, that such an offer was made three weeks ago.

The Association, which has a complete monopoly of national telecasts, will show 12 games this year. Last year General Motors paid $4,000,000 for the schedule; it is expected that a sponsor will soon sign for a similar figure.

University's Problem

Against the NCAA's financial offer, the University has been balancing its uncertainty about the legality of the program, together with a reluctance to join one of the biggest business ventures in collegiate sport. At the same time, a Harvard-NCAA agreement on the television issue would weaken anti-NCAA movements of discontented colleges. The NCAA has faced increased resistance from the Ivy and Big Ten schools recently over the TV issue.

When it originally broke with the Association over the television issue in May 1953, the University stated, "Harvard intends not to be bound by any program restricting its right to decide independently when and to what extent it will televise athletic sports."