ABC Show Will Trigger More Debates

“The bowl picture is cleared up and everything gets put in order,” reads the ABC press release touting Sunday’s BCS bowl selection show.

Actually, after John Saunders and Terry Bowden announce the final bowl lineup, the real arguments will begin.

Oregon State, with one loss, may be shut out of the four BCS bowls, while Notre Dame, with two losses, seems a lock because of its ability to draw a big television audience.

Who’s at fault here, the BCS? Television? The bowl people?

Bowden, reached in Atlanta where he was attending an awards dinner, said, “First of all, the BCS only determines No. 1 against No. 2. The rest is determined by the bowls themselves.

“The bowl people want the most exposure for their sponsors, so, sure, they are going to listen to our marketing people. They want to know which teams from which markets will create the greatest exposure for their sponsors. But television doesn’t have as much pull as everyone thinks.”

Although some people might simply remove the C in describing the BCS, Bowden used television terminology.

“We’re now in the black-and-white stage, and it will take some tweaking before we enter the color stage,” he said. “The HDTV stage, that may be a playoff system. But we’re locked in for five more years.”

The BCS contract doesn’t expire until 2006.

Just about everyone, except for a select few bowl officials and college presidents, seems to favor a playoff, which is what they have in every division in football except I-A. And Division I basketball has its tournament.

CBS’ Billy Packer, in a conference call this week for basketball, had this to say about the state of football: “It’s all about money. It’s certain powerful conferences that are tied into certain bowl games that don’t want to share the money with other schools in their division. Politics have overtaken common sense.”

RADIO WARS

This is getting serious. Sports-talk radio is bringing in the heavy artillery.

Two days before KRLA (1110) converted to all-sports KSPN (1110) at midnight Thursday, it was announced that the One-on-One network, which owns the new KMPC (1540), had been sold.

KSPN is owned by ABC, a division of Disney. KMPC is now owned by Vulcan Ventures, a division of Paul Allen’s empire.

Nancy Cole, KMPC’s general manager, said, “We now have the resources to compete in the marketplace.”

Cole said her station may now finally get a local show to supplement its One-on-One network programming. At one point, the station was close to hiring Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian. But McDonnell killed that deal when he decided to stay at KFWB.

Now, beginning today, McDonnell and Krikorian will be on KSPN, 3-6 p.m. weekdays, supplementing ESPN radio network programming.

They planned to be at the station at midnight Thursday to go on the air for a few minutes shortly after ESPN’s Todd Wright was to signify the changeover with: “L.A., we apologize for the interruption.”

For their initial show today, McDonnell and Krikorian have lined up an impressive list of guests, among them Mayor Richard Riordan. KSPN plans to add another local show in the 1-3 p.m. slot.

The flagship program on the ESPN radio network is Dan Patrick’s 10 a.m.-to-1 p.m. show. Patrick also has an impressive lineup of guests today, including Kobe Bryant.

Meanwhile, what is to become of KXTA (1150)? Can it withstand the onslaught? Los Angeles has never supported one all-sports station, let alone three--four if you count San Diego XTRA (690).

XTRA will drop its ESPN affiliation and begin carrying programming from the new Fox sports radio network nights and weekends.

As the Fox network improves, KXTA may carry more of it. Network programming comes without the production costs of local programming.

There has also been talk of putting the Fox programming on sister station KLAC (570) and converting KXTA to a business news station.

THE GOOD AND BAD

Fox Sports Net commentator Tom Ramsey exemplified good television last Friday during the Arizona State-Arizona football game. He invited Verle Sorgen, the head of officiating for the Pacific 10 Conference who was at the game in Tucson, into the booth to explain why an unusual fake field goal worked for Arizona State. Ramsey had contended that the holder’s handoff to the kicker, who ran 10 yards for a touchdown, was not legal because his knee was down. Sorgen explained the rules and said Arizona State had called the league office ahead of time to explain what it had planned.

Those Florida election geniuses were responsible for some bad television. Although they waited until the Miami Dolphins had defeated Indianapolis on Sunday for their voter certification announcement, two close CBS games were still being shown on DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket--Denver at Seattle and Kansas City at San Diego. CBS had to break in at the worst possible time. And then all viewers initially saw was documentation being signed. Floriduh just can’t get anything right.

SHORT WAVES

In a coup for Fox Sports Net 2 and its “Sports Roundtable” show, Hall of Fame broadcasters Vin Scully, Chick Hearn and Bob Miller will appear together on Monday’s show at 9 p.m. . . . Sergio Garcia has agreed to wear a microphone for TNT’s coverage today of the Tiger Woods Foundation Williams World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. NBC’s coverage Saturday and Sunday will feature an “Eye of the Tiger” camera mounted on the bill of Woods’ cap. . . . NBC announced this week that Ahmad Rashad will replace Hannah Storm on its NBA pregame show. Storm is expecting her third child.

A bit of a stretch: John Salley plays an elf on a Disney Channel movie, “The Ultimate Christmas Present,” tonight at 7. . . . The XFL has made a deal with the National Network, formerly the Nashville Network. TNN will carry Sunday games. NBC’s games will be on Saturdays at 5 p.m., beginning Feb. 3.

IN CLOSING

One-on-One’s Papa Joe Chevalier plays two theme songs for the BCS. One is the theme from “Looney Tunes,” the other from “The Three Stooges.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Nov. 25-26.

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share College football: Notre Dame at USC 7 7.3 19 Golf: Skins Game 7 2.7 6 College football: Georgia Tech at Georgia 2 2.6 7 College football: Grambling State at Southern 4 2.0 6 College basketball: Arizona-Purdue 9 1.9 4 College football: Boston College at Miami 2 1.2 3 College basketball: Cincinnati-Notre Dame 9 0.7 2 Hockey: Mighty Ducks at Edmonton 9 0.3 1

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Cable Network Rating Share College football: Virginia at Virginia Tech ESPN 2.1 4 College football: Wake Forest at No. Carolina St. ESPN 1.0 3 College football: Oklahoma at Oklahoma State FSN 0.7 2 College football: Wisconsin at Hawaii FSN2 0.4 1 College basketball: Oklahoma-Oregon State ESPN 0.4 1 Bowling: Lone Star Open ESPN 0.4 1 Tennis: Fed Cup ESPN2 0.2 1 Hockey: Kings at Pittsburgh FSN 0.0 0

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: Miami at Indianapolis 2 10.9 23 Pro football: New Orleans at St. Louis 11 9.8 23 Pro football: Buffalo at Tampa Bay 2 4.7 11 Figure skating: Grand Slam (tape) 11 2.1 4 Golf: Skins Game 7 2.1 4

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Cable Network Rating Share Pro football: New York Giants at Arizona ESPN 5.2 8 Hockey: Kings at Boston FSN 0.5 1

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: MONDAY: NFL, Green Bay at Carolina, Ch. 7, 14.4/21; Lakers at Clippers, Ch. 9, 4.2/6.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.