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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994                   TAG: 9401300111
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK CRAIG BOSTON GLOBE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEC, CBS NEAR DEAL

Pro football is king in Atlanta today, but a bigger story should break in the coming week on college football, which reigns in Georgia for the other 364 days of the year.

The Southeastern Conference is expected to announce that it will break from the College Football Association and make CBS its network carrier beginning in 1996.

"If it happens, the dominos will start falling," said Tom McElroy, associate commissioner of the Big East Conference. "We could be a week behind."

CBS would schedule regional games of the two conferences most Saturdays and also televise national doubleheaders involving the two.

The departure of the SEC and Big East likely would bring down the CFA because it already is without the Big Ten, Pacific 10 and Notre Dame. The CFA would be left with the Southwest, Atlantic Coast, Big Eight and Big Sky conferences. Good football, but not good TV because of the size of the markets in those leagues.

ABC now has exclusive over-the-air rights to CFA games and desperately is trying to ward off the breakup by negotiating a contract extension. But there appears to be little chance of that happening.

If the Big East also goes to CBS, it would end its problem with Penn State, which ABC almost always airs in major Eastern cities, the main markets of the Big East.

"This involves more than money," McElroy said. "It involves marketing, being seen in our primary areas."

by CNB