ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603040083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
That promo ESPN uses the entire college basketball season - ``Every Game Counts'' - really should be saved for the next week.
Then, ``Championship Week'' is a trademark, but it's also a lie. It lasts nine days.
CBS may have exclusive telecast rights to the NCAA Tournament, but the battle for the Big Dance already has begun, and it is ESPN that brings viewers the first qualifiers for the field of 64. Championship Week starts today, with four conference tournament title games where the winners get to advance to play on Andy Rooney's network.
The rotten ratings for college hoops are understandable. A California media research firm recently revealed that this season, 3,854 college basketball games will be televised somewhere on some network. Look, it keeps people like Clark Kellogg, Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps employed, OK?
The thing is, there's little reason to watch many of those games - until now. There are 30 conferences with automatic bids to the men's Division I tournament, and 27 of those leagues play tourneys as a ticket to the NCAA. About two-thirds of those 27 leagues have little tube time. That's why Championship Week can be so valuable in filling out that bracket for the NCAA office pool.
Part of the charm of Championship Week is watching new faces and stunning developments, sort of like Robert Goulet crooning about college hoops. If this is Tuesday, it must be Valparaiso in the Mid-Continent final, right?
ESPN adds to this theme even in its announcing teams. You see the top seeds, like Vitale, Bill Raftery and Larry Conley, but how about Dave Woloshin and Larry Farmer on today's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference final (3 p.m., ESPN2)? Former Duke star Jay Bilas not only works today's Big South final (2 p.m., ESPN, joined in progress) and the Mid-Con final Tuesday night on ``The Deuce,'' but also the Big Sky capper next weekend.
Those familiar with Championship Week will notice some differences this year. With the NCAA women's tournament moving exclusively to ESPN, the cable network also has increased its schedule of women's conference tournament finales. Seven will air on ESPN2, including the Atlantic 10 from Cassell Coliseum on Monday at 5 p.m., with the ACC, Colonial Athletic Association and MEAC airing on Home Team Sports.
The biggest change in Championship Week moves the entire Big East tournament onto ESPN, with the championship next Saturday night. In recent years, the Big East semifinals and final have aired on CBS. The only three conferences with every tournament game on the air in this region are the Big East (ESPN), ACC (on WDBJ, via Raycom/Jefferson Pilot) and Colonial (quarterfinals are played today on HTS).
Of the 27 conferences which play their way toward the NCAA with a tournament, 24 will have their finals televised in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market. Most of those telecasts will be live. The exceptions are the Southland, which isn't televised, and Conference USA and the Southwest, which locally will have their title games pre-empted by the regional telecast of the ACC finale on WDBJ.
Of the 24 conference championship games, 21 will air on ESPN or ESPN2. The ACC is on WDBJ, which follows that game March 10 with the CBS telecast of the Southeastern championship. The Colonial will be played Monday night on HTS.
Virginia Tech's first Atlantic 10 tournament game, in Thursday's quarterfinals and likely at 9:30 p.m., will air live on ESPN2. Virginia probably will be the No.7 seed in the ACC tournament, meaning a 7 p.m. game (WDBJ) in Friday's quarterfinals. The Southern Conference final, which could include VMI, airs Sunday on ESPN (joined in progress at 4:30 after a 4 p.m. tip-off).
Every day in the next nine has a conference championship game on the tube. There is much more hoopin' than trophy games, however. Thursday and Friday have only one title game each. There are eight other games Thursday, however, and nine more on Friday.
Viewers will be able to dribble their remotes among 28 games in about 56 hours from 11 a.m. Wednesday through Friday night. Where does it end? In Kansas City, a week from Sunday night, when the men's and women's NCAA brackets are revealed at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., respectively.
ESPN's Championship Week got its genesis in 1986, with a Sun Belt Conference quarterfinal game, as Old Dominion defeated UNC Charlotte. Since then, the network's NCAA survival shows have included 439 games involving more than 180 schools for 283 automatic bids.
And most of those games were played with the pressure of knowing a conference would get only one NCAA tournament spot, as Manhattan coach Fran Fraschilla said this week about the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference field.
``The great thing about a tournament like this is there's way more pressure at this level [than at the top of Division I, where a league gets multiple bids]. Three days are unbelievably pressure packed. In some ways, it reminds me of the '60s and early '70s when the ACC got only one bid. Or USC would go 24-2 and not get into the NCAA because its two losses were to UCLA.''
Finally, every game counts.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB