COME ON, BABY, COVER ME: SI POLLS AUDIENCE, CHOOSES KNIGHT

          SI "gatekeepers took the unprecedented step" last
     Sunday of calling 300 subscribers and asking them which
     story "deserved" to be the cover story for the current
     issue, according to USA TODAY's Becky Yerak.  The four cover
     ideas "floated" were the firing of Bobby Knight; Venus
     Williams' U.S. Open win; Rams QB Kurt Warner leading his
     team to a 2-0 start and the Univ. of NE-Univ. of Notre Dame
     overtime game. Yerak writes that Knight's firing was "by far
     the top scorer with those surveyed and it is indeed, SI's
     new cover."  SI Managing Editor Bill Colson said that the
     reader "preference was not intended to be binding," and the
     survey was planned before Knight's firing. Colson: "I would
     have called the survey off if it wasn't already set up,
     because Knight was obviously the big story."  Colson said
     that SI has surveyed subscribers about covers three or four
     times in his five years at SI (USA TODAY, 9/15).