Tom Odjakjian, the director of college sports for ESPN, has spent most of
the last three days on the telephone preparing for the worst, a possible
nationwide boycott of men's basketball games as soon as Saturday, an action
orchestrated by the Black Coaches Association.
"I've been on the phone all day with people all over the
country," Odjakjian said yesterday from his office in Bristol, Conn.
"We're all trading sources, but nobody really knows what's going on. A lot
of rumors, but not much solid information."
Angered by the NCAA's lack of responsiveness to its concerns - especially
the NCAA's failure to reinstate a 14th men's basketball scholarship - the BCA
has talked about boycotting games this weekend and throughout the season.
Odjakjian's problem - one also faced by CBS, HTS, other cable operators and
national syndicators of televised sports - is what to do with all that air time
if games are not played this weekend. ESPN, for example, has three games
scheduled on Saturday and three games on Monday. He's also responsible for
ESPN2, which has three games scheduled Saturday and two more on Sunday.
"It's a unique situation, something we've never dealt with
before," he said. "We don't know if it's going to be one coach
walking off, teams leaving after halftime, no players, players as coaches. We
just don't know, and right now I don't know how many people do know. Today,
people seem to think it won't be across the board, but we're preparing for the
worst."
The worst would mean no games at all, meaning ESPN would fill in with
programming from its vast sports library, with cut-ins to arenas around the
country affected by the boycott. ESPN also has the advantage of being able to
stay on top of the story from a studio that will be manned all weekend, if
necessary.
If it's a selective boycott, meaning only certain games will be affected,
ESPN will try to switch to other games around the country, if possible. That's
why Odjakjian was on the phone all day yesterday, making arrangements to get
live feeds of other games produced by other cable systems and national
syndicators like Raycom and Jefferson Pilot. Raycom, for example, has 13 games
scheduled Saturday.
At CBS, there also are contingency plans being formulated. The network has
two games scheduled this weekend, Seton Hall at Pittsburgh Saturday at noon and
Michigan at Indiana Sunday at 3:45 p.m. As of yesterday, network sources said
they expected the games to go on as scheduled.
Andrea Joyce will be in the studio Saturday to anchor a halftime show that
will be totally devoted to the issue, including interviews with officials from
the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the BCA and the NCAA Presidents
Commission, the group that was instrumental in blocking the reinstatement of
the scholarship.
James Brown will do the play-by-play for both weekend games, and CBS
Executive Producer Rick Gentile said, "He's the perfect guy for us on
site. He knows the issues, he knows all the principals. There's no one better,
and James Brown is the guy I think people will want to hear."
In a worst-case scenario of no games, CBS will begin its programming from
the studio and also switch to game sites for reports from Brown and Bill
Raftery Saturday and Brown and Billy Packer Sunday. The network also will air
highlights from last year's NCAA championship game if there's no live
basketball to be seen.
"We'll react to whatever is happening and plan accordingly,"
Gentile said.
"I'm looking forward to the weekend," Brown said yesterday.
"I hope we'll be able to engage in some meaningful dialogue, and I'm sure
that forum will be provided for us to do it. I'll be as objective as I possibly
can. I just hope these people can come to a reasonable compromise."
HTS has three college basketball games scheduled Saturday and two on
Sunday. The Bethesda-based regional cable network is producing Georgetown's
home game against Providence at USAir Arena Saturday; the other games will come
from Prime Network feeds.
Jody Shapiro, director of programming and executive producer for HTS, said
he will most likely add a game-site reporter, probably Al Koken, to supplement
the coverage of play-by-play announcer Mel Proctor and analyst Kevin Grevey at
the Georgetown game.
With Georgetown Coach John Thompson among the most visible and vocal
members of the BCA, he could become a central part of the story. If no games
are available, HTS will fill in with other programming - coach's shows or
highlight packages in other sports.
"If the game is interrupted, we'll have a reporter at the site,"
Shapiro said. "We're also planning to take calls from viewers and talk
about the issues with all our people at the arena. At some point, depending on
what happens, we'll also have the capability to do news programming from the
studio if we have to.
"As far as rights fees, I haven't even given it a thought. It's not a
big issue. We're in partnership with these schools and conferences, so we're in
it together. I just hope they play."
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