Soaking up the Press

Yesterday afternoon, at its annual convention in Washington, the National Collegiate Athletic Association voted to place Yale University on athletic probation for two years for using a basketball player, Jack Langer, that the NCAA had declared ineligible.

As a result, the Eli swimming team, a perennial national power, will be banned from post-season competition, and two Blue track men- Don Martin and Kwaku Ohene-Frempong- will not be able to run in either of the NCAA meets in March and June.

Yale openly defied the NCAA authorities when it used Langer in an ECAC game in December, and it will continue to do so. inviting further punishment which the Convention implied would be forthcoming. It is only fair, in view of the letter of sympathy that all eight Ivy presidents signed last week, that the Ivy League vote to accept Yale's punishment as well, and if the circumstances warrant it, withdraw unconditionally from the NCAA.

The Ivy League has long been a thorn in the NCAA's side, often quarreling with the Council- and power-mad president Walter Byers- over such issues as the mandatory 1.6 grade point rule. It is time that it cause a serious blow to NCAA authority by a powerful and unwavering protest over the Council's meddling where it clearly has no place.

Yale has done nothing illegal, unless refusing to act as a pawn is illegal. The Langer affair arose solely from another in a series of childish, petty disputes between the NCAA and AAU over control of American amateur athletics. Langer, with Yale's full consent, participated in last summer's Maccabiah games as a member of the U. S. basketball team. But basketball, ironical, was the only sport forbidden to NCAA athletes at the Games, since the NCAA wished to deprive the AAU (which organized the basketball team for the Games) of the major portion of its squad and thus humiliate its rival.

What is even more absurd is that Paul Katz, a Yale swimmer, competed in the Games with the NCAA's full approval. So Langer's and Yale's, persecution smacks strongly of pawn-pushing on the NCAA's part. And when the NCAA begins to exploit its members for its own selfish interests, it is time to seriously debate whether it has outlived its usefulness. By insisting that it will continue to keep Langer on its varsity squad, Yale hopes to provoke that debate, but unless the Ivics support Yale to the utmost- and that means withdrawal from the NCAA- the Elis courageous stand will have little effect upon the NCAA's repressive policies.

If Yale had broken a reasonable rule- such as academic eligibility- it would have deserved such punishment, and would have accepted it. But the two-year probation that the NCAA handed down yesterday is not only unjust, but intolerable, and the Ivies must call the Council's bluff.

Without the Ivy League, the NCAA would still probably function as a governing body of American collegiate athletics. But its prestige and integrity would suffer greatly in the process. The Ivies must realize their great influence over Yale's ultimate fate, and must strike if the NCAA does not rescind its punishment- and Harvard should lead the way.