Cowherd Cutback: Less Can be More

Enjoyable and entertaining ESPN Radio host Colin Cohwerd told listeners Friday that his four-hour nationwide show would move to just three hours beginning April 5 -- and it's a cutback he championed.

"I begged," Cowherd said of his discussions with management. Because he also co-hosts "SportsNation" on TV, Cowherd said he felt as if he was sprinting from show to show and not doing the quality of work he wanted.

Many affiliates only take part of the show, "The Herd with Colin Cowhed," and it's four-hour format makes it a midday program on the East Coast and a morning drive offering on the West Coast. Both New York City and Los Angeles affiliates carry the show.

For other markets that only get part of the show, the downside might be more Jim Rome as stations look for options to fill an hour of air time.

Cowherd believes his radio show should benefit greatly from the move. Few single-host shows run for four hours, and he sounded genuinely upbeat when announcing the move.

"I say this all the time, less is more," Cowherd said. "I have no interest being on the show for six hours. I'd rather have a tight, fast show."

In an unrelated move, "The Herd" is losing producer Amanda Gifford as well. She's leaving next week, with Wednesday as her last show, to take a management position with ESPN Radio -- overseeing some weekend programming and g and moving to a position that will allow her to mentor and teach a bit. For someone who earned undergraduate degrees in communications and education, it's a natural and savvy move.

She brought the show a lot of heart and personality, and her planning was key to many unseen aspects of its success. Hopefully, she'll get the appropriately appreciative and appropriately fun, sendoff she deserves during her final show.

Bracketologist: 96 Teams Too Many in Tourney

Count ESPN "bracketologist" Joe Lunardi among those against expanding the NCAA Tournament.

The man who turned a hobby into a respected avocation with spot-on analysis and prognostication about the annual men's basketball tournament believes the existing 65-team approach works quite well.

"There's no good basketball reason to do it, to expand the tournament -- at least dramatically," Lunardi told reporters on an conference call this week. "By that I mean no team with a realistic chance to win the national championship is being excluded by the current system."

He said some good teams do miss the tournament, but not any team that has the potential to win numerous games and contend for the crown. "I've never heard that argument," he said.

Still, Lunardi knows what drives any such decision, and he knows what just might happen. While the colleges and universities that comprise the NCAA are technically non-profit entities, the NCAA itself and the networks that would televise the event are not. Plus, the annual men's basktball tournament provides nearly 90 percent of the NCAA's annual revenue.

"Whatever decision is made is going to be for business reasons," Lunardi said. "The business people making the decision are going to make a plus-minus evaluation."

While Lunardi thinks those making the decision know that expanding the tournament would diminish the regular season and make late-season games and conference tournaments anticlimactic, he believes some expansion will happen. "It's coming sooner rather than later," he said, although he was not sure it would move to as many as 96 games.

He's adamantly against such a major expansion, too.

"My only wish is that they consider my sleeping habits. I do lie awake at night dividing 65 teams from 66," he said, insisting that the difference between the last team in and first team out is significant in the current format. He does not believe much of a difference would exist between the 96th team and the next team that misses in an expanded tournament, though. Because of that fine line, a line for a team that almost certainly would lose in first round, Lunardi thinks the process of selecting the final team would be "a pain in the ass." He added, "I don't think the world will be any better off if we don't have 13 Big East teams in the tournament."

BTN's Series Boasts Keith Jackson as Host

Iconic college football play-by-play man Keith Jackson plans to return to TV again this fall -- coming out of retirement again and serving as host of "Big Ten Icons" on the Big Ten Network.

The three-year old network announced the series and its host Thursday.

The BTN heralds the 20-episode series as the "most ambitious project" in its history, and that's a fair assessment -- especially if the network truly makes the multi-platform aspects of the program work. Along with the 20 shows hosted by Jackson, the project to count down the top 20 icons in the conference's history includes a dedicated Web site and Facebook page with interactive elements, video and more.

The shows will begin Sept. 18, 2010, after a football game on BTN, and end in early 2011, just before the start of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament. The site, set to launch in early September, will count down icons 50 to 21.

Still, Jackson's presence makes the TV series as noteworthy than its content. At 81, and off East Coast college football games for several years, he's a good pick to host a show that might have a bit more historical content and require some context. He told USA Today: "I'll just try to stay out of the way. They needed an old-timer to wobble around in front of it to get it going."

Expect the show itself to be similar to exclusive programs on any number of cable channels, as those outlets attempt to develop shows of their own. Because of that, the true success of "Icon" will be found in whether it feels and looks more like the "America's Game" series on the NFL Network (a good thing) or some top-10 beaches list on the Travel Channel (an average thing that just eats TV time).

Having Jackson on the job might help the show lean more toward the latter. According to BTN officials, he embraced the idea of the show and even wanted to have some editorial control.

According to the BTN, the list of 50 icons is being determined by a panel of on-air talent, network executives, conference officials and long-time conference observers.

Knight: NCAA Tournament Already Too Big

With a 96-team NCAA Tournament seemingly a foregone conclusion sooner rather than later because the NCAA wants more money -- and not because 31 worthy teams are left out of the existing 65-team event -- a few more people have lined up to oppose the idea.

Bob Knight, the all-time victories leader in Division I-A men's basketball and current TV analyst, offered his insights with "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio.

First, there was some sarcasm (what else from the often acerbic former coach?) and a tongue-in-cheek suggestion: "If they want to expand, expand it all the way, and then you play one game and you’re right back to 64. Then you’ve giving every team that can just dribble the basketball the opportunity to participate."

His real opinion came later: "I don’t think there should be any expansion. The ideal tournament to me is 32 teams. With 32 teams in the tournament, you’ve set up a tournament where virtually every team is going to be pretty good and have a chance to go somewhere."

The existing 11-year deal between CBS and the NCAA for the tournament runs for another three years, but a clause allows the NCAA to opt out after this season with no penalty -- if it decides to do so by July 31. Because the event provides a huge portion of the NCAA's annual revenue (more than 90 percent), some NCAA officials see it as an area for even more growth.

Opponents correctly argue that a 96-team would diminish much of the charm of the tournament and further water down college basketball's regular season. Those arguments do nothing to sway supporters, for whom the current economy provides another motivating factor. Some NCAA officials see this year's opt-out window as a perfect time to rebid the tournament, making the rights for the event available at a time when other sports properties are not on the market.

NHL Tries Too Hard for Olympic Bounce

When radio and TV talkers speculated about a possible popularity bounce for the NHL in the wake of a strong Olympic tournament -- notably the two Canada-United States machups -- they proffered numerous possibilities for the sport to build off that apparent success.

Whether TV ratings for a once-every-four-year event really mean anything for the least popular pro sports league in the United States might take a long time to determine.

Still, the NHL showed subtlety was not part of its post-Olympics plan Tuesday night.

On the FSN broadcast of the Buffalo Sabres game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, a matchup that included the Olympic tournament MVP (U.S. goalie Ryan Miller who plays for Buffalo) and the player who scored the decisive goal in the gold medal game (Canadian forward Sidney Crosby who plays for Pittsburgh), pre-game introductions included individual recognition of all Olympic hockey players participating in the game.

With the Olympic theme music in the background at the Mellon Arena, the public address announcer announced every player from each international team and the arnea spotlight then focused on each of the players, culminating with Crosby. While the approach produced some interested results, among them a big ovation for Miller in a rival arena, it also showed that the NHL does not believe its product can stand on its own.

As much as pro hockey could use a boost, it has to craft success on more than just the Olympic hype.

Sideline Reporters Move Front and Center

Two well-known sideline reporters made news early this week -- with one (Erin Andrews, at right) weighing celebrity vs. journalism and the other (Lisa Salters) becoming the focus for some criticism of sideline reporters in general.

Chronologically, Salters' situation came first. It was brought to light by an Orlando Sentinel blogger, Tania Ganguil, who talked with Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy about the work of sideline reporters in general and ESPN's Salters in particular.

The genesis for the discussion was an in-game interview between Salters and the generally loquacious Van Gundy, when the coach seemed less than thrilled with the situation. He said in-game interviews almost inevitably pose a challenge for coaches.

"After the game's hard enough. I can take some time and compose myself and answer questions fairly rationally," he said. "Between quarters stuff ... I'm not trying to be rude to the people that are interviewing me, but to be quite honest I don't want to deal with it. I want to get back in the huddle and talk to my players. I don't want to be answering questions.

"I got nothing against Lisa Salters. I respect her work. I like her. Tat's a bad time. That's a bad time. That's like coming down trying to carry on a conversation in the middle of the game with me. We're in the game. The game is on. It's just not where my mind is at that point."

Exasperating the specific situation was the fact that former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy (Stan's brother) works as an color commentator for ESPN. He said such in-game interviews with coaches could be replaced with interviews of random fans.

In this case, despite Salters' proven track record of solid journalism and work in the most difficult job on TV sports, the Van Gundy brothers were correct. Those in-game interviews are just a series of bad things waiting to happen. News hardly ever gets broken, and they feel forced and uncomfortable -- no matter work works the sideline and for which network. But, networks keep trotting those reporters out there. While the economy has hit businesses of all kinds in the past year and a half, the sideline reporter subset seems almost recession-proof, and every TV crew seemingly has someone holding a microphone and asking questions at the wrong time.

Andrews, another proven sideline reporter (and probably the most popular and well-known of the bunch because of her looks and skill set), decided to build upon her popularity when she agreed to participate in this season's edition of "Dancing with The Stars." The ABC reality series, which airs starting in late March, features of variety of celebrities in a televised dance competition.

Ratings for the show dropped markedly last year and the producers hoped to rebound with an more recognizabel group of stars this season. The 11-member group also includes: 80-year-old astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actress Pam Anderson, reality TV mom Kate Gosselin, Olympic gold medal skater Evan Lysacek and NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco.

Expect the personable Andrews, a member of the dance team at the University of Florida as an undergraduate, to survive numerous rounds of cuts on the show.

Her decision to participate was not easy, though, especially in the wake of the well-publicized incident last July when a stalker posted a video of her changing in a hotel room. The video was taken without her permission in 2008, led to legal action and, eventually, the arrest of a man from Chicago. He was charged with insterstate stalking, posting them online and trying to sell them to a celebrity media outlet.

Andrews, whose father was an award-winning TV investigative reporter and who has regularly shown her own skill set as a journalist, weighed her options and said she eventually decided to participate in the program to "get my smile back."

It sounds like a nice change of pace, and she probably needs it after a rough year away from the job. Plus, there's no doubt it'll help her in her job, making her more popular and ensuring more and more assignments.

Olympics P.S. -- More of Same from London

Those who lamented the taped results of many events from NBC during the just-completed Winter Games might find little solace when the Olympics return in 2012 for the Summer Games in London.

Because of steady primetime ratings, and because of strong support from the International Olympic Committee, it's hard to imagine NBC changing its approach.

“Look at the numbers,” Richard Carrión said, the IOC's top broadcast executive, told Sports Business Daily. “Everyone thinks they’re a television producer. I think Dick Ebersol has proven to be a pretty good one, so I wouldn’t question his judgment.”

In addition, Canadian IOC member Dick Pound was among others who brushed aside U.S. criticism and offered support.

“That’s why you sell rights on a territorial basis to broadcasters who understand their audiences,” Pound said. “If the U.S. likes their Games delayed and told as a story, fine. The market will tell you if you’ve got it wrong. So far it hasn’t.”

Also, those who complain about the lack of live coverage of major events during daytime hours often seem to assume that ESPN or some other network and partners could do it better because they have a commitment to sports programming. Or, that a daytime ratings boost for live events would bolster NBC, making that another good reason to abandon its already proven business model. Sometimes, it's just not so simple.

By 2012 the model could change, with online, real-time news and smart phones delivering more and more timely information. By that time, NBC might adapt to meet those needs. And NBC itself might change by that time, too. It's pending purchase by cable giant Comcast might prompt an "on-demand" Olympics (as Comcast does with concerts, movies and other programs).

Rights for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, have not been awarded. However, an IOC official said they hope to award rights for the 2014 and 2016 Games in "Gatekeepers Package," which would put broadband, mobile and television into one package for media entities to consider.