Columbia at Princeton

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  Evening star, October 7, 1953, page 82

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  Close Games Balance Fewer Plays Run Off In One Platoon Plan NEW YORK, Oct. college football fans are seeing less foot ball for their money this year under the one-platoon system, but they’re getting enough action and close competition to make up for the loss. That observation, based on two games seen thus far by one writer-Notre Dame VS.. Okla homa and Princeton VS.. Columbia. is backed up by figures from the National Collegiate Athletic Bureau. Few games could be more exciting than Notre Danes 1921 decision over Oklahoma or Princeton’S laSt-minute 20–⁠19 victory over Columbia. But a calm checkup reveals there were only LAG plays run off in the Sun-scorched contest at Norman, Okla, and 149 at Princeton, in cluding kickoffs and plays null lifted by penalties. Those figures apparently were above the average so far this year. although they represented a sharp drop from games checked in 1851 and 1852, which showed anywhere from $50 to la rlaVS nnr pan1a Average 118 Per Game. The Moab. limiting it’s sta tistics to offensive plays for convenience. comes up with the figure of lib per game as an average for some 800 games played so far this season. Last year the seasons average was 1884 plays per game. Scoring has shown a proper tionate drop-from an average of 36.7 points for two teams per game to 1913. But everything else, according to Moab figures, looks favorable toward the two “oJ SoAAAC oO NOL41pdI Gu w GIlc tWo-platoon performances of the last few years. When the rules-makers abolished the platoon system, the decrease in the number of plays and in scoring was anticipated and probably desirable” according to Homer Cooke, director of the statistical setup for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. What wasn’t anticipated was that offensive football would sustain it’s pace as we’ll as it has, that the statistical spread” between the leaders and trailers in nearly every department would be decreased and that the big change would be in the decreased use of forward passes. Proportionately, the relation between the number of plays and the points scored is about the same as last year.

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Princeton leads 61–⁠12–⁠1 in 74 meetings, counting the 51 since this game.