Today's media column ... at least
Technical difficulties, or whatever they're calling it, resulted in today's sports media column not making it onto the website. More efforting today didn't produce any positive results.
So here it is:
With a boogle of TV networks and cable partners trying to weasel their way into the mix, the NCAA's recent trial balloon on how to expand the men's basketball tournament to as many as 96 participants as early as next year has definitely added some fever to the usual frenzy leading into Sunday's annual selection show.
Ripples of angst began last December when the Sports Business Journal revealed that the NCAA was trying to decide on opting out of its current 11-year, $6 billion deal with CBS this summer and rework the parameters to where it could ad more teams - as few as three or as many as 31 more. The current CBS-NCAA back-loaded deal has three years and $2.131 billion left on it, so there's a lot still at stake in messing around with the magic.
Last month, SBJ obtained a proposal that the NCAA sent to potential broadcast rights bidders, pushing an "over-the-air" network to partner with a cable channel to package the bloated bracket, with more than half of the games going to cable.
A logical assumption would be that CBS -- which has been doing this since 1982 when it wrestled it away from NBC after its 13-year run -- retain the rights and add TBS/TNT in a joint bid. It also has CBS College Sports as a cable partner in 38 million homes that it uses most effectively this time of year.
However, those at ESPN/ABC, which just did a lucrative deal with the NCAA that moves most of the major bowl games to cable, and at Fox/FSN are very much alive in the live auction, depending on the new dynamics.
Once that information trickled out, a swell of backlash came from wave upon wave of media members who felt they had to preserve whatever integrity was left on an event that was once thrived with a modest 32-team dance card.
Washington Post columnist Tracee Hamilton called the 96-team proposal "the worst idea in the history of ideas."
The New York Times' George Vecsey: "I am stunned when people don't have respect for their own product."
A writer at mgoblog.com put it: "The 96 Team NCAA Tournament: A Plot Against America..."
Syndicated columnist Norman Chad wrote that, in addition to the phrases Final Four and Elite Eight that have been so associated with this, a new format could be called "The Needless Ninety-Six."
"If you live in America long enough - and I'm getting there - you come to realize that everything expands," Chad wrote. "You also realize that it's always about money, and in sports, the money comes from television. So, frankly, a combination of Darwinian evolution and Draconian economics would lead the NCAA to seek even more billions of dollars from CBS, or another TV partner."
The chatter rattles on as this season's field of 65 canibalizes itself in this week's conference tournament. For whatever reason, ESPN bracket buckethead Joe Lunardi has already posted a mock 96-team field.
You know, just in case.
"It's great to get every perspective on this," said Jay Bilas, working the Big East Conference tournament for ESPN this week in New York and will again be part of CBS' tournament coverage. "The NCAA is smart to have this conversation and take a detailed look. I don't happen to think it's the right solution to expand, but it depends on your goals. If there's a huge pile of money associated with it, I tend to think that's a good thing.
"From a TV standpoint, people will still watch, but the regular season won't matter nearly as much. The average fan doesn't start to care about college basketball until after the Super Bowl, but by then, if there are 96 teams, who cares who'll be the last four in?
"The law of unintended consequences is a strange thing."
To that point, ESPN announced Thursday that this past college basketball season (131 regular-season games) was the net's highest rated since 2005-06.
Seth Davis, the Sports Illustrated writer and CBS studio analyst the last seven seasons, says he thinks the 96-team talk will continue through the weekend as "great fodder for conversation," but once this tournament field is set, "it'll all subside."
"People jumping the gun and guessing what will happen . . . I don't know and I work here," said Davis. "If they wanted to add junior high girls teams to the field, that's fine for me as long as it stays on CBS. There's nothing riding on this for me except my house payments."
Miller waits for the itching to go away
If Bob Miller is a late scratch for Sunday's Kings-Nashville noon telecast on FSW, it's understandable.
The Kings' Hall of Fame play-by-play man says he'll revisit the doctor today to see if he'll be able to resume his NHL broadcasting sooner rather than later. Miller has been on the disabled list since last Saturday when he came down with a case of the shingles, a skin rash from the virus that causes chickenpox.
The Kings have readjusted their broadcast teams on TV and radio in the interim, with Nick Nickson recently moving over to join Jim Fox in the TV booth. Fox and radio analyst Darryl Evans did the TV call together last Saturday on short notice.
Tonight's Kings-Dallas game isn't on TV, only radio (1150-AM).
"I'm getting better," Miller said in an email from his West Hills home. "The rash is not too noticeable but the blisters are still unsightly and I'm still having pain on the left side of my head. Most people who have had this have told me to be careful about returning too soon."
If Miller misses Sunday - which would be his third day off this week - the Kings don't play again until March 18.
Since he started calling games for the Kings in 1973, Miller has missed 17 previous assignments but none since November of 2002.
WHAT SMOKES
== "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks" revives ESPN's "30 in 30" documentary series (Sunday, 6 p.m.). Director Dan Klores, in a "thrilling and rich, dark operatic comedy . . . weaves together, in 68 minutes, an entertaining tale of will, power, humor, sexism and hoops that leaves the audiences on the edge of their seats," according to the ESPN press people. Basically, it's covering the times in the 1990s when Miller's Indiana Pacers faced the New York Knicks in the playoffs, capped by Miller's verbal jousting with Knicks fan Spike Lee. ESPN also announced this week that "Guru of Go," a documentary that's part of this series done by Academy Award winner Bill Couturie and focused on Paul Westhead's break-neck offense during his days at Loyola Marymount will air on Saturday, April 3 on ABC, opposite of the national semifinals on CBS.
== A shifting landscape at ESPN Radio will push the start and end times of KSPN-AM (710) local shows up an hour beginning April 5. ESPN Radio decided to move Colin Cowherd back to its original 7-to-10 a.m. slot and expand Scott Van Pelt an extra hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. As a result, KSPN's 11 hours of local shows begin with Andrew Siciliano and Mychal Thompson starting earlier and overlapping Van Pelt, while Steve Mason and John Ireland move to 2-to-6 p.m., Brian Long and A Martinez will go on from 6-to-9 p.m. with "In The Zone."
WHAT CHOKES
== Tony Kornheiser's return to ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption" after a two-week suspension for comments he made on his radio show about the wardrobe of "SportsCenter" anchor Hannah Storm did nothing to make the story go away so fast. ESPN ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer, in his March 10 post, said punishing Kornheiser was fine, but "the network's rationale seemed disingenuous. Instead of rightfully suspending Kornheiser for denigrating a fellow employee, the company's statement issued an all-encompassing dictum that 'hurtful and personal comments' would have 'significant consequences.' . . . It established a very low disciplinary bar, considering that a sizable portion of what ESPN airs and prints involves blunt opinion and criticism -- and much of that criticism could liberally be interpreted as personal and hurtful."
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