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NCAA An n ounces TV Football Plan Colleges Limited ToOneAppearance Proposal Calls for Telecast OfOneGame Nationally Each Saturday This Coming Fall By OSCAR FRALEY United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2.— In a move to prevent "television monopoly" by the larger football colleges, the NCAA tonight announced a plan prohibiting more than one video gridiron appearance per season for each school and eliminating the so-called "blackouts" of last year. The plan, which must be approved by two-thirds of the NCAA membership, provides for television of one game on a national basis on each football Saturday next season. The winning sponsor would be permitted to substitute small college games on a local basis. A provision also was made that the games must be widely distributed geographically in respect to their points of origin. The proposed plan demands approval of all televised games by the NCAA television committee; a provision that no college is obligated to televise any of its games, and that "sponsors shall be organizations of high standards," which, the committee announced, "apparently excludes beer and liquor advertisers." With colleges limited this season to one television appearance, only the schools involved would share the proceeds of their televised game— with the exception of an administrative assessement of less than 18 per cent by the NCAA. But the college association looked forward to the day when these televised games "will be measured in millions of dollars, instead of thousands, under a pay-as-you-see system." When that day comes, an era estimated by the committee to be no more than three years away, the NCAA television committee feels that the entire seasons proceeds should be divided proportionately among the NCAAs 250 football-playing colleges. Take Sport Out of Big Business "The projected plan, however, should take college football out the bounds of big business," said committee chairman Robert A. Hall of Yale. "It will help eliminate television as a vast money-making device for the favored few, and may make it possible for a greater number of colleges, especially the smaller ones, to get television attention i and to share in whatever television income ] may be available. j In this way we hope that all colleges will be able to meet the increasing financial burdens of their athletic programs and none will find football so important that educational institutions will find themselves building policies around football," he added. "The plans has been mapped to accomplish one further purpose deemed basic by the NCAA-— the protection of football revenues which presently provide the backbone of college athletic budgets and are making possible maintenance of all sport programs recognized as necessary for the health and well-being of college undergraduates," he said. The twelve dates, to be sold as a "package deal," are Sept. 20 and 27; Oct. 4, 11, 18 and 25; Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 27 Thanksgiving Day and 29. While the plan proposes that a college may not appear more than once a season on television, either at home or away, the committee said that "exceptions may be granted. . .If the committee finds that no appreciable damage will be done thereby to the NCAA program or to member colleges." Friday night, Sunday afternoon and other games not on traditional Saturday afternoon dates are not specifically covered, but the committee reserved the right to consider them "if there is evidence they are undermining the long-range objective inherent in the plan." # Selection of the games to be televised would be up to the sponsor, subject to committee approval. But the sponsors must make the games available without charge to any other networks or independent stations which may wish to carry the games simultaneously. But the committee, in an accompanying letter to the voting members, indicated that even this one-shot payoff to the televised school was only a stop-gap program. It called for thought, prior to the annual meeting in Washington next January, on the question of sharing all receipts proportionally. "Because we believe," the committee insisted, "that television in the future will provide financial pressures which if not effectively checked may well spell the end of amateur football." , ,
