Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9503020006
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Bonner has been invited by CBS Sports for a fifth straight year to be a game analyst for the network's early round telecasts of the NCAA Tournament. The former Virginia forward, most familiar for his work on ACC and ESPN basketball, will have added responsibilities this year.
At the women's Final Four in Minneapolis, Bonner will work for CBS as a sideline reporter. Should the network decide it wants a sideline reporter at all four Sweet Sixteen regional sites in the men's tournament, Bonner will get even more work.
``It's like [sometimes ACC telecast partner] Bob Rathbun says,'' Bonner said. ``The producers say it two ways. The first is, `Gee, you did a nice job.' The other is, `Gee, you did a nice job. ... Can you work Tuesday?'''
Bonner, a Staunton resident who says his ``real job'' is as a Social Security administrator, is likely to learn his CBS/NCAA play-by-play partner this week. The first- and second-round assignments won't be made until the tournament field is selected. This will be Bonner's 11th straight year working NCAA early rounds. From 1985-90, he performed analysis for NCAA Productions before CBS bought exclusive rights to the event.
``It's nice to know people think I can do the job,'' Bonner, 41, said. ``The fact CBS asked me to do the sideline work shows they feel I have a little versatility. That's not an easy assignment. And I'm thrilled to work the women's tournament. I used to coach women's basketball [at UVa], and I like the game and I'm really interested in it.''
The roster of CBS voices for the NCAA, headed by the Jim Nantz-Billy Packer team, will be revealed next week. Besides Packer and Bonner, the analysts will be Bill Raftery, Quinn Buckner, Al McGuire, Ann Meyers, Clark Kellogg and a TV rookie, George Raveling.
Raveling has has worked some Pacific-10 games for Raycom in recent months. He resigned as Southern Cal's coach several months ago after receiving serious injuries in an auto accident last summer.
BIG EAST DEAL: A recent Big East Football Conference meeting revealed more details on the lucrative telecast contracts that will begin in the 1996 season with CBS and ESPN. The five-year deals will bring the league an average of $16 million annually, although how that money will be divided among the eight programs has yet to be determined.
Tom McElroy, a Big East associate commissioner, said CBS is guaranteeing between nine and 12 Big East home games during the season, and several of those will be non-conference dates. Most Saturdays, the Big East games on CBS will air in a split-national format with a Southeastern Conference game.
Virginia Tech and its seven Big East brethren are each guaranteed only one appearance over the five-year deal with CBS. However, CBS must schedule at least five of the eight schools annually, and McElroy said that considering how the schedule is likely to fall, a sixth team is probable for the package.
The ESPN contract calls for seven Big East home games annually plus about five dates on ESPN2 per year. The Big East also will get some NBC time, with West Virginia and Rutgers scheduled by Notre Dame in future years along with fellow Big East members Boston College and Pitt.
SEC GETS RICHER: How much can expansion to 12 teams and a football championship game mean? To the SEC, it means prime time next season and $4 million in TV rights annually starting in 1996. ABC will move the SEC title game from 3:30 p.m. to an 8 p.m. kickoff in December. In '96, when the SEC moves from ABC to CBS, the rights fee for that game doubles to $4 million annually. The only bowl games with that much TV clout are the new alliance's Orange, Fiesta and Sugar.
NICE STORY: A feature segment on CBS ``Sunday Morning'' (9 a.m., WDBJ) this weekend will explain the strange connection among a 3-year-old thoroughbred, a Norfolk organization, children and the Gaza Strip.
The race track winnings of Ops Smile, a Triple Crown nominee with a win and two seconds in four starts, is funding facial surgery for deformed and disfigured children in the Gaza Strip. Operation Smile, a Norfolk-based organization, provides doctors and surgeons for the cause.
The horse, is owned by Maryland builder and philanthropist Jim Ryan, who decided the winnings should go to the charity for whom the horse is named. Maybe Ops Smile will run in the Kentucky Derby.
AROUND THE DIAL: One of the prominent NCAA telecast voices from past CBS shows won't be back. That's James Brown, who is adding Fox's NHL studio anchor work to his ``Fox NFL Sunday'' role. Fox's NHL regional Sunday coverage begins April 2. ... ESPN will air the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament selection show, revealing the 64-team field on Sunday, March 12 at 12:30 p.m. CBS and ESPN have the men's tournament brackets that day at 6 p.m. ... So, how will NASCAR's new SuperTruck series be received? The Feb. 5 truck opener at Phoenix International Raceway on TNN attracted the highest cable rating (1.25 million TV homes) of that weekend. ... Cable's TBS has scheduled 122 Atlanta Braves' games, replacement baseball or not. ... ESPN has announced it will televise one East Carolina football game per season. ... The Washington Redskins might be changing flagship stations again. Three years ago, the'Skins moved radio rights from WMAL to WTEM for a three-year, $8.4 million contract. Now, WJFK in the nation's capital is said to be bidding $4 million annually for the package. ... ESPN's ``Championship Week'' hoops coverage begins a week from today, with the Trans-America, Mid-Eastern Athletic and Ohio Valley conference tournament championship games. Those are the first of 22 conference title games on ESPN. Another four are on ESPN2.
by CNB