IF POLITICS is a sport then there are two leagues in the United States-the traditional democratic and the radical. Until about five years ago there was only one league. Now there are two. But the fact is that the two leagues still refuse to recognize each other and until there is some kind of merger, or one is eliminated, the older league is still the most powerful.

Old style politics has three basic ingredients: money, organization, and votes. This season the money and organization belong to the guys in the black hats. Nixon-Agnew and Co. have launched a frontal assault to wrest the third ingredient, votes, away from its traditional owner, the Democratic party. If they are successful it will mean a major swing to the right for the United States, with the precise results of that swing left to anyone's guess. One thing is clear, however; if the Nixon-Agnew candidates are successful, the results will not be very pleasant for the Vietnamese, black people, the economy, or students.

Students have played an increasingly important role in the campaign, not as canvassers or volunteers, but as an issue. The deaths at Kent State, the wave of bombings, the Weatherman fall offensive have all provided grist for the conservative mill. All across the country liberal candidates are shying away from defending students. No one can really predict the effects of an Agnew tongue lashing on a candidate and liberals in general are taking no chances. Check out the store front office of Ted Kennedy in Boston if you don't believe it.

The prime target of the Nixon assault is the Senate. If the Republicans can pick up seven Senate seats, they will gain control of the body, giving them the power to pick the committee chairmen who rule the upper house. President Nixon has said that the best present the nation could give him on November 4 would be a Republican-controlled Senate. It was the Senate which rejected two of his Supreme Court nominations. It was the Senate which passed the Cooper-Church amendment. It is the Senate which contains George McGovern, Joseph Tydings, Edward Kennedy, and Edmund Muskie.

Thirty-five Senate seats are up this year. The key races are in New York, California, Vermont, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee, North Dakota, and Ohio. Following is the first part of a two-part series giving a state-by-state rundown of the contests in the Senate:

ALASKA: Republican Senator Theodore F. Stevens, a strong Nixon supporter, faces Democratic challenger Wendell P. Kay, a liberal. Stevens is the first Republican ever to serve as a Senator from Alaska. He was appointed to fill the remainder of the term left following the death of Senator E. L. Bartlett. In a state which produced Ernest Gruening, one of the two Senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Kay is given a good chance of ousting Stevens.

Kay's big issue is conservation. He is militantly opposed to the big oil companies which have sought to racage the open northern portions of the state. Stevens, on the other hand, takes the stand that the oil companies will bring money and jobs into the underdeveloped portions of the state. Give the lead to Stevens, but don't count Kay out.

ARIZONA: What should have been a safe state for the incumbent Senator Paul J. Fannin has become not so safe. The Republican Senator, a protege of state folk hero Barry Gold-water, is in a hot battle with millionaire Phoenix businessman Sam Grossman, the Democratic candidate. Grossman is a liberal who is waging a heavily financed campaign on television and in the papers. He is still a long way from victory, but an upset is not impossible.

CALIFORNIA: Former song and dance man George Murphy is running neck and neck with a young and vigorous liberal Democrat, Rep. John V. Tunney. It is impossible to predict anything, much less a political election, in the land of Reagans and Mansons, yet Tunney must be given the edge. He is running a strong campaign against the 68-year-old Murphy, whose campaigning is hampered by his voice problem (he has had several major operations on his throat and is only barely audible).

In June Murphy was implicated in a conflict of interest scandal involving his relations with Technicolor Inc. Since the beginning of his Senate career, he has been employed by the firm as a $20,000 a year consultant. In addition, Technicolor has paid half the rent on Murphy's Washington, D.C. apartment and has provided him with a credit card for his travel expenses. Murphy claims that there is nothing wrong with a Senator picking up pocket money in such a fashion, but the incident is the kind of political no-no that can lose elections.

Tunney has criticized President Nixon for failing to realize that a settlement of the war will have to include a "broad based government in South Vietnam." He has also called for economic and medical aid for both North and South Vietnam.

CONNECTICUT: The bizarre career of incumbent Sen. Thomas J. Dood appears to be at an end. Running as an independent, Dodd is given little chance of winning. His only impact on the election will be to cut into the votes of the Democratic candidate, Rev. Joseph D. Duffey. Dodd, who has a liberal record on domestic matters but a mysteriously conservative stance on foreign policy, will benefit from his religion. He is a Roman Catholic in a heavily Catholic state. Duffey, a peace candidate and a backer of the 1968 Presidential bid of Gene McCarthy, is a Congregationalist minister. He is a long-time liberal, and his campaign has attracted nationwide attention as an indicator of the political viability of the peace movement.

How much Dodd cuts into Duffey's vote will determine whether the election is won by the Republican candidate, Rep. Lowell P. Weiker. Weiker is considered a moderate Republican, but supports the Nixon course in Indochina.

DELAWARE: Here is a clear liberal vs. conservative race. The conservative, Republican Rep. William V. Roth, is the front runner. Opposing him for the seat being relinquished by retiring Republican Senator John J. Williams is Democrat Jacob W. Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a strong opponent of the war and favors limiting the war-making powers of the President. In a state which is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Duponts and which has a sizeable group of Wallace supporters, Zimmerman is clearly the underdog.

FLORIDA: In one of the major primary upsets of the year, State Senator Lawton Chiles defeated former Governor Ferris Bryant in a runoff for the Democratic nomination. Facing Chiles in the general election is Republican Rep. William C. Cramer, who pulled a minor upset of his own in winning the Republican nomination from G. Harrold Carswell.