Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990                   TAG: 9003032580
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

NCAA SHOULD KEEP VALVANO'S MUG OFF TELECASTS

Valvano is expected to appear live from Raleigh, N.C., during the halftime segment of the Georgetown-Syracuse game Sunday (WDBJ Channel 7, noon) for an interview with Greg Gumbel. Valvano may be looking for work soon, and CBS has a seven-year commitment to college basketball in its $1 billion contract for the NCAA Tournament starting next year.

CBS also is hoping to become the ACC's primary network carrier when NBC begins its NBA coverage next winter. There is no doubt CBS is interested in the colorful Valvano as an analyst/commentator. Realizing the Wolfpack, on NCAA probation, could not play in this year's NCAA Tournament, CBS Sports tried to hire Valvano for the three-week show. The NCAA nixed the idea.

With N.C. State already on probation, with former players labeled as alleged point-shavers, with former Wolfpack star Charles Shackleford admitting he took $65,000 from an agent, Valvano's college coaching coffin is all but buried. It is likely he will surface in TV work, if not NBA coaching.

However, Valvano doesn't belong on NCAA basketball telecasts as a commentator. NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz should be more concerned about Valvano's appearance on tournament telecasts than he is about reducing the amount of beer advertising. If Schultz is serious about cleaning up the mess engulfing college athletics, then pulling the TV plug on a guy in charge of a slimy program is appropriate.

"March Madness" begins tonight with a college doubleheader on ESPN. The finals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic and Northeast conference basketball tournaments start the cable network's so-called "Championship Week" that determines entrants in the NCAA's 64-team field.

By next Sunday night, ESPN will have televised 23 of the 30 conference tournament finals. All seven games of the ACC Tournament are syndicated by Raycom/Jefferson-Pilot in the conference's region (WSET Channel 13 locally, starting with four quarterfinals on Friday). CBS has the Metro and Big East finals; ABC has the Southeastern, and Home Team Sports has the Colonial Athletic Association.

Of the 30 conference tournament finals - the Ivy League and Big Ten do not play tournaments - only the Big South and Pacific 10 will not be telecast in this region. Because of Home Team Sports' limited availability in this area, the Colonial will not have much exposure. CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager hasn't moved his league's title game to ESPN because he wants to protect the extensive CAA regular-season package on Home Team Sports.

The great thing about "Championship Week" is viewers get to see teams from conferences that don't have TV contracts, learning something about underdogs who will pull upsets in the NCAA Tournament the next week. One of the most attractive "unknown" pairings, barring upsets, could be Monday's Metro Atlantic final at 9 p.m. - LaSalle vs. Holy Cross.

The radio broadcast of VMI's Southern Conference Tournament semifinal game with East Tennessee State will be joined in progress at approximately 2 p.m. today by Roanoke's WRIS (1410 AM), after the station carries Richmond's Colonial Tournament opener against North Carolina-Wilmington at noon. The Keydets' game begins at 1:10 p.m.

There will be no local telecast of Virginia Tech's Metro Conference Tournament opener against Southern Mississippi on Thursday night. The first-round nightcap at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum will be broadcast by Metronews on the Tech radio network (including Roanoke's WSLC, 610 AM) starting at 9:40. . . . WROV (1240 AM) will carry all seven ACC Tournament game broadcasts live starting Friday at 11:30 a.m. WROV isn't scheduled to cover any of the state high school tournaments.

WSET was the only TV station in the market to have a Terry Holland interview on its 6 p.m. newscast Thursday, three hours before Holland's final home game as Virginia's coach. . . . WDBJ on occasion doesn't squeeze the NBA and NHL scores into its 11 p.m. sportscast because of high school basketball and NASCAR video. The reason, sports director John Kernan says, is a priority on local and regional coverage. With cable penetration in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market nearing 60 percent, according to Nielsen statistics for February, Kernan says most sports fans wanting NBA and NHL scores and highlights get them from ESPN and CNN anyway. . . . Earlier this week, WSLS sports anchor Greg Roberts told Channel 10's news anchors he had a problem with baseball players making big bucks going on strike. The players aren't on strike; they're locked out by the owners.

The College Football Association, in the fallout from Notre Dame's defection to an exclusive television contract with NBC, has pacified the Southeastern Conference. The SEC made noise about bolting, too. Last week, the CFA television committee realigned the minimum-appearance percentages for each constituency group.

The Western Athletic Conference and Southern independents will get at least 8 percent of the team appearances on ABC and ESPN from 1991-95; the ACC, Big Eight and Southwest conferences get at least 10 percent; the Northern independents get at least 12 percent. The SEC, which was slated for 12 percent, has been promised 22 percent. In recent years, when the CFA used minimum-appearance numbers and not percentages, the SEC averaged 25 percent of the dates anyway.

The two additional wild-card games created for ABC's new four-year NFL contract will result in a Saturday afternoon doubleheader. ABC is paying $930 million to renew its "Monday Night football" series, and has the next Super Bowl, in Tampa, Fla. . . . Oak Hill Academy's 29-0 basketball team will be among the features on ESPN's "Scholastic Sports America" show Sunday morning at 10 (repeated Monday at 6 p.m.) . . . CBS Sports has hired ACC telecaster Brad Nessler to do play-by-play on NCAA Tournament telecasts. Nessler will work with Tom Heinsohn. . . . The day after Turner Broadcasting announced it had half the NFL's Sunday night cable schedule from 1991-94, TBS Sports executive producer Don McGuire received job inquiries from about 35 sportscasters.

ESPN's 10-game baseball exhibition telecast schedule was to begin today. The owners' lockout of players has forced the first two games to be scrubbed. Next in jeopardy are games scheduled for March 14 and 18. . . . ESPN has completed its announcing teams for its 161-game schedule by pairing former infielder Tommy Hutton with Chris "Back-back-back" Berman on Tuesday night games. Other play-by-play men are Jon Miller, Sean McDonough, Gary Thorne and Steve Zabriskie. The analysts are 1990 Hall of Fame electees Joe Morgan and Jim Palmer, Ray Knight, Norm Hitzges, Mike Lupica and Hutton.