Saturday's Univ. of NE-Univ. of OK football game, the
first No. 1-versus-No. 2 midseason college football matchup
since the inception of the BCS, will "not be carried by ABC
in the Pacific time zone because the game kicks off at"
9:00am PT, a time dedicated to children's programming by
ABC, according to Mike Penner of the L.A. TIMES. ABC Sports
VP/Media Relations Mark Mandel called the children's
programming "very important for the network. We're a full-
service network, not just a sports network." Penner writes
that the Big 12 and ABC "could have rescheduled the game
later in the day so that the West Coast could see it live
... but didn't consider it worth the inconvenience."
Mandel: "In this situation, we couldn't accommodate the
entire country." Local West Coast viewers could pay $11.95
for the game on PPV, as ESPN is offering the game on its
GamePlan package. Penner wonders why ABC didn't move the
game to ESPN so the entire country could watch it. ESPN's
Mike Humes: "It's ABC's game. I understand we're all under
the same umbrella. ... We don't have a contract with the Big
12, ABC does, but we don't" (L.A. TIMES, 10/27). Also in
L.A., Tom Hoffarth mocks ABC's press release stating the
game is delivered to a national audience: "Did we mention
that a national audience in this case doesn't include
Seattle to San Diego and all points in between?" Hoffarth
adds that ABC's sports division is allowed once a year to
"bust into the kids' lineup, but it already has committed to
Michigan-Ohio State at the end of November even though the
game probably won't have anything to do with who goes" to
the Rose Bowl (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 10/27). Mandel said that
ABC would "only cut into its children's schedule for
breaking news" (MERCURY NEWS, 10/27). In S.F., Steve Kroner
writes that with the "magnitude" of the game, "ABC could
have made an exception for tomorrow, even at the expense of"
the kids' cartoons (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/27).
