Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 290, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1912 — PLAN A NEW COMBINE [ARTICLE]

PLAN A NEW COMBINE

Movement Under Way to Form Rival of “Big Nine.” Five Colleges and Universities Included in Conference In Middle West—Notre Dame and Marquette Are Included. A movement is on foot which will, if it materializes, result, in a new conference of colleges and universities in the middlowest. Sponsors for the plans are working secretly and with a dispatch that augurs'well for ultimate success. Notre Dame, Marquette and Wabash have been named as charter members, with the possible Inclusion of thq Michigan agricultural college and Lawrence university. There will be six or eight institutions*in the conference, and it will enter upon its official existence in the fall with the opening of the 1913 football season. An effort was made last spring, It will be remembered, to form a conference of the Catholic universities* in the middle west, but owing to the weakness of the teams the plan was abandoned. The necessity of cementing athletic relations between the prospective members of the new conference is recognized as the principal reason for the launching of the combine. The strength of the institutions named for membership is too well known to need advertising. Notre Dame has always turned out a football team that made it a feared rival on any gridiron and a sure-fire contender for the ‘championship of Indiana every year. Wabash, the home of the “Little Giants,” has given the South Bend eleven a bitter fight, and a meeting always brews oodles of Interest. Marquette and Notre Dame have a three-year tie to wipe out, which says plenty for the evenness of the two teams representing these schools. They will endeavor to settle their differences Thanksgiving day at Comiskey park. Michigan “Aggies” have always been bitter football foes of Notre Dame, and Is. a powerful team. Lawrence this year walloped Marquette, demonstrating that It Is a worthy candidate for membership in the new conference. While the plans are in the making discussion of the rules which would govern eligibility of football players has already taken place in a sketchy way. The majority of the schools In line for membership already comply with thq regulations that govern the “big nine” with the exception of the training tp,ble. Notre Dame, Marquette and Wabash have promised, It Is understood, to enforce the freshmen rule, and the abolition of the training table may follow.