Ivy Group May Approve Revised NCAA TV Plan

Indications around the Ivy League last night pointed to that group's approval of the 1955 NCAA college television plan released two days ago. The plan is a revised version of the controversial 13-game national program which caused Harvard to break with the NCAA two years ago. The new plan calls for eight national telecasts and five dates for telecasting within each of the seven NCAA districts.

Three Ivy athletic directors last night heartily approved of the new plan. Three others indicated tacit approval, but reserved final judgment until the faculty of their respective institutions had reviewed its provisions. And two other were unavailable for comment.

Of these advocating the liberalized program, Cornell's Robert J. Kane, a member of the NCAA policy committee which drew up the new provisions, said Cornell would probably pass the plan. "We favored the older plan when the other Ivy League colleges didn't," he commented.

"But I think the new plan has a good chance of passing with the Ivy presidents," Kane explained. He pointed out that the 1955 program conformed more closely with the Ivy Group agreement than did the older plan.

Other backing Kane were Robert ("Red") Rolfe of Dartmouth and Paul MacKesey.

Here at Harvard, no decision will be reached until after a vote by the Faculty Committee on Athletics. That is the case at Princeton and Yale. Two years ago, both Harvard and Yale rejected the NCAA program on the grounds that it restricted the University's right to decide independently when and to what extent it will televise sports.

The liberalized provisions of the new plan will probably invalidate these objections.

Although Ivy Group members are not bound to act as a body in dealing with the NCAA, it is generally felt that some sort of agreement will be reached among the eight Ivy colleges before individual institutions accept or reject the program.