Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994 TAG: 9405140019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Tech athletic director Dave Braine and Tom McElroy, the Big East associate commissioner and TV coordinator, will make personal visits to Virginia stations in an effort to increase Big East exposure. They'll stop in Richmond and Norfolk after making a pitch to WDBJ (Channel 7) and WSLS (Channel 10) in Roanoke.
WSLS has held the Big East's Saturday noontime rights locally the past two seasons, but last year Channel 10 aired only three of 10 games - just those involving Tech. WDBJ hasn't been attracted to the Big East schedule because of a lack of certain Tech and West Virginia appearances. Richmond and Norfolk stations aired fewer games than WSLS did in 1993.
With Coach Frank Beamer's Tech program coming off a 9-3 season and an Independence Bowl victory with about two-thirds of its starters returning, the Hokies and Big East will make a greater push for TV exposure, particularly in Tech's home market.
The preliminary Big East schedule delivered to stations for proposal includes the potential for as many as five appearances apiece for Tech and the Mountaineers. More likely, each will appear about three times. Each of the eight Big East members must appear once on the 11-week schedule. Some games will be lost from the conference package to the CFA schedules on ABC and ESPN.
The WVU-Tech game at Lane Stadium already has been moved to Thursday, Sept. 22, for an ESPN prime-time game. West Virginia also has certain network dates in the Kickoff Classic against Nebraska and against Syracuse on Thanksgiving night. Tech's September visit to Boston College is a possible ABC regional, too, but ESPN is not interested for prime time.
If Tech is to build interest in its football affiliation beginning its second year of round-robin play, the Hokies and Big East must convince TV stations to air games involving Rutgers, Pitt and Temple as well as Tech, WVU and Miami. In each Virginia market, it appears the station that is willing to air the most games will get the package.
In Roanoke, WSLS has six Notre Dame games from NBC, but after the Fighting Irish's home opener against Michigan, its home schedule is mediocre. Although WSLS would like to keep the Big East, if Channel 10 tells the network it intends to air those games rather than Notre Dame, the network will scream.
WDBJ's major conflict for a noontime college football schedule in recent years is history. CBS lost the baseball contract, plus the NFL. The network's fall weekend sports programming is weak. So, perhaps WDBJ would be willing to air at least most of the Big East schedule.
There's another attractive noontime football option in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, too. Because WSET, the ABC affiliate, returns with the Atlantic Coast Conference noon schedule, the six CFA noon games on ABC's package must be pre-empted. Fox affiliate WJPR/WFXR aired those in the past, but last season canceled the final two for movies.
This season, those noon ABC games include Notre Dame-Florida State, Penn State-Michigan, Florida State-Miami, Ohio State-Penn State and Michigan-Ohio State. Those won't be aired by WSET, so unless another station steps in, area viewers won't see those games.
\ ACC WAITING: The ACC won't schedule its entire noontime telecast package prior to the season, as in the past. Jefferson-Pilot Sports and the league have agreed that only games through Oct. 8 will be penciled in. Then, the syndicator will wait until 12 days before game dates to select the games.
"We requested it," said JP executive producer Jimmy Rayburn. "We won't be changing so many games because they're picked by ABC and ESPN, and we'll get better games on later in the season."
In the first half of the 12-week schedule, Virginia is penciled in twice - a Sept. 3 opener at Florida State and a Sept. 17 home date with Clemson. However, Rayburn said ABC is interested in those as potential 3:30 p.m. regional telecasts, and one of the two is "almost certain" to be selected by the network.
ABC and ESPN will finalize their CFA schedules by mid-June. UVa has one certain network date, its Thanksgiving Friday 11 a.m. kickoff on ABC against North Carolina State.
Rayburn said Jefferson-Pilot again will split the ACC network for regional games in November to put teams on in their home states during a Nielsen ratings sweeps period.
\ GREAT EIGHT: ESPN and Raycom have announced the field for the Great Eight, the new two-night college basketball show that starts at Auburn Hills, Mich., on Nov. 29-30. The format calls for the eight regional finalists from the previous NCAA Tournament to play single games in a pair of doubleheaders.
Only NCAA champion Arkansas, citing schedule conflicts, refused to play among the NCAA final eight. The offer went to North Carolina, ranked No. 1 in the final polls, but the Tar Heels also turned down the spot because of conflicts. Arkansas was second in the poll and Purdue, already in the Great Eight field, was third. So, No. 4 Connecticut accepted the berth.
Joining UConn, Missouri and Purdue are Duke, Boston College, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. Pairings, by random draw, will be made June 1.
\ AROUND THE DIAL: Norv Turner will add to his $500,000 annual Redskins' coaching salary with a $150,000 deal for his weekly TV show on Washington's WJLA. . . . French Open tennis returns to USA Network for the first time in nine years when 24 hours of live and same-day taped coverage begins May 23. John McEnroe will be USA's lead analyst and then join NBC for its final weekend shows that will be minus Dick Enberg this year. Enberg will be calling the NBA playoffs. . . . Danny Sullivan, who is trying to get into Winston Cup racing, joins ABC's crew for its upcoming Indianapolis 500 qualifying and race shows. Sullivan won Indy in 1985. . . . The Nielsen ratings for ABC's Kentucky Derby telecast last Saturday were up 3 percent over last year, when a 7.3 rating was the lowest a Derby posted since ABC began telecasting the event in 1975.
by CNB