NO BCS-ING YOU, ABC LIKELY TO GAIN BOWL SERIES THROUGH 2006

          Despite calls for a college football playoff, the Bowl
     Championship Series (BCS) will "announce today a four-year
     extension with ABC through the 2006 bowls for slightly more
     than" $400M, according to USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke.  Big 12
     Conference presidents, in a conference call on Wednesday,
     "affirmed picking up the BCS' three-year option with ABC
     starting in 2003 plus an extra year.  The final year of the
     current deal, 2002, also might include an increase."  The
     "new deal will boost ABC's annual payout to the BCS at least
     28%," to $100M-plus from the current $78M, for the Rose,
     Sugar, Fiesta and Orange Bowls.  Team payouts averaging
     "about" $12M could jump to more than $15M (USA TODAY, 1/27).