Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
"If there's ever evidence of a changing world, it's television," said Duke athletic director Tom Butters, chairman of the ACC's TV committee.
The deal was not unexpected. NBC, the conference's primary carrier, has obtained NBA rights away from CBS, and is making a drastic cutback in college telecasts.
The deal with CBS is for one year because of Maryland's NCAA probation, which prohibits the Terps from being on live television. Butters said some Maryland tape-delay telecasts were planned.
CBS is the big hitter in college basketball with its seven-year, $1 billion contract for the NCAA Tournament.
Now, by signing the ACC, CBS vice president for programming Len DeLuca said the network would program that league with the Big East for Sunday doubleheaders.
That will include the tournament championship games on March 10, 1991, with the Big East game starting at noon with the ACC following immediately.
After a 90-minute sports anthology on winter sports, CBS will have its NCAA Tournament selection show at 6:30.
"It's a dream Sunday," DeLuca said. "The ACC, Big East and the selection show."
Because of Maryland's TV ban, Butters said the league would have only 16 appearances on the networks in '90-91, a reduction of four. There will be 11 on CBS, including the title game, plus three on ABC and two on NBC.
Last season, there were 14 appearances on NBC, four on CBS and two on ABC.
"Because of the extenuating circumstances with Maryland, we had to readjust our thinking to protect our syndicated package," Butters said.
CBS games include Georgia Tech-North Carolina on Jan. 27, Super Bowl Sunday, and Duke at North Carolina on March 4, when CBS also will carry Georgetown-Syracuse. The other nine appearances will be non-league games, with just one in December, DeLuca said.
With league TV opportunities reduced from 56 games to 42 because of Maryland's ban, Butters said the ACC still was able to have 38 dates on its Raycom/ESPN package.
That means all but two of the non-Maryland games will be televised.
DeLuca said there would be two or three ACC/Big East doubleheaders, competing with NBC's anticipated NBA doubleheaders on Sunday.
"The NBA always has outdrawn college basketball [head-to-head]," DeLuca said. "But we think that by signing the ACC along with the Big East, we will have the best possible package to compete."
DeLuca said CBS won the college basketball ratings war "with our lowest ratings since 1982, which reflects the proliferation caused by having 1,200 games on TV."
"The Big East championship always has gotten good ratings, but the ACC [on NBC outside of the region] hasn't been as good," DeLuca said. "We think that with this concept, the ACC ratings will be what they should be.
"This will synergize the games. They'll draw off each other because they won't be competing."
DeLuca said CBS would attempt to get a long-term contract with the ACC next year, after Maryland comes off probation. "This [season] will be a good experiment," he said.
Despite the smaller number of games on national television - and without Maryland on the regional package - Butters said he didn't think there would be a loss of revenue.
"I'd be surprised if there are losses," he said.
DeLuca said the schedule would be completed next week. No decision has been made on who will replace Brent Musburger as the tournament partner for Billy Packer, but Hubie Brown has been added to the analysts list, joining Bill Raftery, Quinn Buckner and Len Elmore.
Brown previously had been a CBS analyst on NBA games.
by CNB