Women’s Olympic Hockey To Get Prime Coverage
After watching NBC give only passing reference to the gold-medal women’s teams in soccer and softball at the Atlanta Games, CBS insists it won’t make a similar mistake at the Nagano Olympics.
The U.S. women’s ice hockey team, runner-up at the last four world championships, will have two early-round games shown on CBS. TNT will also carry some games. The gold-medal game will be shown on same-day tape Feb. 17 from 7-9 a.m.
“Obviously we think this is a compelling event and a sport in which the Americans will do well,” said Rick Gentile, CBS’ executive producer for the Olympics. “Our goal is to put everything on that we can, and in this case, the schedule broke well for us.
“The Winter Games are different than the summer because there are not as many sports, so we can put more on.”
The U.S. women make their television debut this coming Wednesday at 5 p.m. PST on Lifetime against the Canadians.
Mike Emrick, the lead NHL announcer on Fox and TNT’s play-by-play man at the Olympics, will call the game with Margaret Degidio Murphy, the women’s coach at Brown. Mike Eruzione, who led the 1980 U.S. men’s team to the Olympic gold medal, will be the sideline reporter.
“I’m very impressed with their speed and how they handle the puck,” said Eruzione, who recently practiced with the U.S. team. “Their slap shots are pretty hard, but they don’t have the strength in the hands and wrists yet to shoot a hard wrist shot.”
Canada is the four-time defending world champion and the favorite in Nagano. The U.S. team lost 4-3 in overtime during the 1997 finals.
We’re No. 2
The head of the Orange Bowl is calling his game the “alliance national championship.” But CBS football studio analyst Craig James isn’t fooled.
“Everybody can spin it the way they want, but it’s not No. 1 vs. No. 2,” James said. “It would be a perfect situation to have Nebraska vs. Michigan.”
James and his studio cohort, Lou Holtz, both decried the alliance system, which left No. 5 UCLA out and No. 10 Kansas State in - based in part on the number of tickets each school could sell.
“The alliance was supposed to get rid of politics and get the best possible matchups, but it’s still politics as usual,” Holtz said.
James said he wouldn’t mind a bit of confusion in the polls after the Orange Bowl.
“I do root for chaos in the bowl system,” James said, “so that one of these days in the near future we’ll have sensibility and there will be a playoff system.”
Despite Michigan’s overwhelming lead in both polls, James said there is still a chance for a split champion.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, indeed, Michigan really struggled, and Nebraska put it to Tennessee, the coaches maybe would give a co-national championship,” James said.
Around the dial
ESPN airs the announcement of the Heisman Trophy winner Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The network will also have a half-hour preselection show today at 4:30 p.m. … With the college football regular season complete, the NFL begins its two-week Saturday broadcasts. Fox will show the Redskins-Giants game at 9:30 a.m. PST and NBC will air the Steelers-Patriots at 1 p.m.