A dispute between Adidas and newsletter Sporting Goods
Intelligencer will be heard by the OR Supreme Court next week
after a ruling in a local court Tuesday denied the newsletter the
right to print technical details about the shoemaker's product
line.  The OREGONIAN's Jeff Manning reports that Portland-based
Adidas America claimed that SGI printed details about its Spring
'97 line in identical language to an internal company booklet.
SGI Publisher John Horan, who also co-owns a market-research
company, said in  an affidavit that Adidas "is accusing him of
gathering proprietary information in his role as a marketing
researcher and then selling it to the highest bidder."  Horan
claims "outrage" that Adidas is insinuating that he is abusing
his position as a journalist.  Attorneys for SGI vow to fight the
ruling (Portland OREGONIAN, 3/13).

     The NCAA tournament, which begins today, has become the
NCAA's "cash cow," according to Paul Kenyon of the PROVIDENCE
JOURNAL-BULLETIN.  The NCAA's $1.725B rights deal with CBS is one
of the reasons NCAA revenue has "skyrocketed" from $99M in '89-90
to a budgeted $222.2M for this year.  That is mostly TV revenue,
but '95 ticket sales hit $14.1M with radio rights at $2.87M and
merchandising bringing i,n another $500,000.  More than 80% of
the NCAA budget is derived from basketball revenue.  Distribution
includes a Broad Based Distributing Plan where all member schools
share in the plan, with money "awarded based on the number of
varsity sports a college offers and the number of scholarships it
provides."  The Basketball Fund distributed almost $40M to
schools last year by conference.  Last year, the ACC received
$5.3M, the Big East $4M, and the A-10 $1.7M (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL-
BULLETIN, 3/14).

     Promoters Bob Arum and John Parks were in Houston yesterday
on their U.S. tour to promote the closed circuit Julio Cesar
Chavez-Oscar De La Hoya fight.  They would like to use The
Summit, but if that is not available due to the Rockets playoff
schedule, Hofheinz Pavilion is the next choice (HOUSTON
CHRONICLE, 3/14)....Walt Disney noted that 82% of Cap Cities/ABC
stockholders chose an all-stock payment in the recently completed
merger (N.Y. TIMES, 3/14). ....TNT, Fox and CBS are all
reportedly interested in Ronnie Lott as a football analyst, while
Fox is looking at Bill Maas as game analyst and Chuck Knox in the
studio (USA TODAY, 3/15)....The "CoreStates John Lucas Show" will
be televised in the new CoreStates Center this weekend.  It is
the first taped tour of the facility (76ers)....NBC will air an
NBA special, "The Global Game" on the international growth of
basketball, Sunday at 2:30pm (NBA)....Time-Warner and U.S. West
went to court yesterday, as U.S. West tries to block the merger
with TBS.  While sources close to the trial say they would be
"flabbergasted at any settlement," Columbia Law Prof. John Coffee
suspects that during trial, both sides will try to "read" the
judge to see if a settlement may be the best option ("Moneyline,"
CNN, 3/13).

     CBS hopes to rebound from a 22% drop in NCAA tournament
ratings since '93.  CBS Sports Exec Producer Rick Gentile said
they have "legit excuses" for the drop, citing the O.J. trial and
Michael Jordan's return to the NBA last year, and the lack of
close games in '94.  But Grey Advertising's Jon Mandel said CBS
"has the potential to fall again" because of the loss of many
star players to the NBA.  Mandel:  "But even if the NCAA's are
below break-even, it's a good event.  Nothing else is comparable
for male viewers at this time of year, and it shows that CBS
still is in the game" (Rudy Martzke, USA TODAY, 3/14).  In
Baltimore, Milton Kent writes CBS "needs this tournament to
produce in a big way to promote its flagging prime-time lineup"
(Baltimore SUN, 3/14).  CBS Sports President David Kenin said he
had "no specific" rating in mind, but expects to be "about where
we were last year" (Michael Starr, N.Y. POST, 3/14).
     MAS MADNESS:  Prime Deportiva will broadcast the entire
tournament live to Latin America for the first time (Prime
Deportiva)....CBS Radio's home page on the Web -- http://
www.cbsradio.com -- also will provide coverage (CBS Radio).