Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 10, 1990 TAG: 9003102327
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: jack bogaczyk
DATELINE: BILOXI, MISS. LENGTH: Long
"I'll get a letter addressed to Greg Gumbel at CBS Sports," Gumbel said. "Then, inside it says, `Dear Bryant . . . You did a great job on the college football studio show. Do you think Jane [Pauley] is going to be happy?'
"Sometimes I don't think they know who they're writing to. I'll get letters, addressed to me, and they ask, `How's Willard [Scott]?' "
Bryant left NBC Sports in 1982 to become the co-host of "Today" for NBC News. That is about the same time his gregarious older brother burst into sports-viewing consciousness as an ESPN "SportsCenter" anchor.
Now, Greg is with CBS Sports, but on occasion he must compete for ratings with his kid brother. When Harry Smith is on vacation, Greg is the host of "CBS This Morning," aired at the same time as "Today."
Today, the Gumbel of CBS will call the Metro Conference Tournament championship game (1:30 p.m., WDBJ Channel 7) with former Indiana guard Quinn Buckner. The game will go to about 40 percent of the nation in a split-national format with one of the Big East Conference Tournament semifinals.
For Gumbel, it's a warmup for NCAA Tournament assignments. Then, it's on to NBA playoffs play-by-play and the studio host's role on CBS' new baseball coverage. He will call NFL football games when CBS loses college football to ABC in 1991.
"I didn't really see myself at CBS," said Gumbel, who signed a four-year contract with the network in October after leaving studio and play-by-play work for Madison Square Garden cable. "It was always whatever I took, I wouldn't mind, because I was enjoying what I was doing.
"And every time I moved, from ESPN to the Garden and the Garden to CBS, I did it for a better offer and what I considered a better job. But it wasn't like I ever had complaints about where I was."
The appeal at CBS was an offer that combined both play-by-play and studio work. And it was no small matter that Gumbel will have the opportunity to work the 1992 and '94 Winter Olympics in France and Norway, respectively.
"I do get to do a lot of different things, and I enjoy that," Gumbel said. "The only promise I extracted from [CBS Sports President] Neal Pilson when I signed the contract was that I'll never have to work a soccer game.
"I'll do anything else they ask. But I won't do soccer. I hate it."
The announcement earlier this week that Maryland was being put on probation by the NCAA, with the Terps banned from TV next season, leaves the ACC with several decisions to make.
It also figures to leave Maryland much poorer.
"It's something we have to act on," said Gene Corrigan, the ACC commissioner, when asked about the Terps' telecast status for next season. "We've never had a basketball program with TV sanctions before."
Raycom Sports and Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions share in the production and syndication of the ACC's regional TV package. Raycom vice president Ken Haines said here Thursday that the syndicators' concern with the absence of the Terps is whether enough ACC games will be available for telecast to meet advertising sales needs.
Corrigan said Maryland likely will be barred from the 1991 ACC Tournament, because the event is televised.
"The TV games are sold. Who's to say they won't make the finals and we'd have to eliminate a game in each round then," Corrigan said.
The other telecast problem the Terps present for the ACC is in this year's ACC-Big East Challenge. ESPN is paying $7 million for four years of the four-night event.
"Something obviously has to be worked out there," Corrigan said of the series of doubleheaders in December. "But the obvious solution is we'll have to play a game and not televise it and work out the financial thing later.
"I think if you put that game into the mix at 9 p.m. on Monday night, it's not going to make a whole lot of difference whether it's televised or not, because you're going against `Monday Night Football.' "
Precisely. In the first ACC-Big East Challenge in December, Connecticut's romp over the Terps drew only a 1.0 rating in that time slot. The series average was 2.2.
The only precedent for the Terps' situation in ACC history was Clemson's NCAA football probation in the early 1980s. The Tigers were stricken from live TV, and did not get their one-eighth share of conference TV revenue in those years.
From the Raycom/J-P and network contracts, the ACC is paid about $12.8 million annually for basketball telecast rights. So, the Terps stand to lose $1.6 million next year.
WFIR (960 AM) will air five hours of college basketball Sunday night.
From 6-9 p.m., the Roanoke station will air "Selection Sunday," a call-in show with Kentucky broadcaster Cawood Ledford and Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt. The NCAA Tournament pairings will be announced and dissected on that show.
From 9-11 p.m., "Costas Coast to Coast" has host Bob Costas and North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano. They will talk about the upcoming tournament, and probably discuss Valvano's future with or without the Wolfpack.
by CNB