Fall Highlights On Cable

Cable World, August 11, 2003

Byline: SHIRLEY BRADY

BET

Black college football game schedule is still being finalized. MAAD Sports Profiles (Thur. 11:30 p.m.) and MAAD Sports (Sat. 12 p.m.).

CNBC

Enhances its TV partnership with NBC for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships with new Sunday primetime coverage starting Oct. 5 from host site Oak Tree at Santa Anita. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association event airs Oct. 25 on NBC, with CNBC also highlighting the race that weekend. The Grand Criterium from the Longchamps racecourse in France has also been added to its fall lineup of premier horse racing events.

COMCAST SPORTSNET PHILADELPHIA

Features hometown faves Eagles, Sixers, Flyers and Phillies, plus postgame coverage and news and college football and basketball programming. The Angelo Cataldi Show runs Mondays during the Eagles' season, while Pro Football Thursday is on Thursdays during football season, featuring a wrap-up including Fox Sports NFL analyst Brian Baldinger and former Eagle Mike Quick.

COMCAST SPORTSNET MID-ATLANTIC

Home of live Baltimore Orioles baseball, Washington Wizards basketball, Washington Capitals hockey, DC United soccer and local and national college football and basketball. Highlights include Pro Football Thursday (10:30 p.m. throughout football season), focusing on the Redskins, Eagles and the rest of the NFC East. The Ralph Friedgen Coaches Show (Wed. 10:30 p.m.) features the coach of the Maryland Terrapins football team; Redskins Magazine (Fri. 10:30 p.m).

CSTV COLLEGE SPORTS TELEVISION

Dog Days, preseason college football prep, runs Aug. 26-29 at 10 p.m. CSTV Football Game of the Week starts Aug. 30, featuring 12 teams from last year's NCAA Division I-AA championships including defending champion Western Kentucky and runner-up McNeese State. On Oct. 18, three-time defending Division III champ Mount Union will visit Ohio Athletic Conference archrival John Carroll University in a meeting that may have NCAA playoff implications. CSTV features postseason action after the December playoffs with the National Junior College Athletic Association and NAIA championship games. Other fall highlights: Up to 18 teams from the men's and women's NCAA Division I tournaments last fall will compete in the CSTV Soccer Match of the Week, which kicks off Sept. 15 with North Carolina at Texas (women). Sunday Night Spike boasts 15 volleyball teams that competed in the 2002 NCAA championships; the action begins Sept. 7 with Florida at Stanford.

ESPN

Rush Limbaugh joins Sunday NFL Countdown on Sept. 7, when ESPN's 18-game 2003 Sunday Night Football schedule starts with a rematch of last year's AFC championship game, with the Oakland Raiders at the Tennessee Titans. The schedule wraps Dec. 28 with Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Its 2003/04 NBA regular season schedule tips off with No. 1 NBA draft pick LeBron James making his professional debut during an ESPN doubleheader Oct. 29, with the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Sacramento Kings. The ESPN/ESPN2 NBA schedule is primarily Wednesday night games and Friday night doubleheaders. Fall golf coverage includes the Bell Canadian Open (Sept. 4-7) and the Funai Classic (Oct. 23-24). The network's first original drama, Playmakers, runs Aug. 26-Oct. 28 (Tue. 9 p.m.). Original movie The Ice Bowl, penned by Joe Eszterhas, premieres Dec. 13.

ESPN2

The first season of the new six-year TV rights deal for the WNBA wraps up in September with game one of the finals on ESPN2 on Sept. 12, game two on ABC (Sept. 14) and game three, if necessary, on ESPN2 on Sept. 16. ESPN2's first-ever live coverage of the WUSA championship - the 2003 Founders Cup - airs Aug. 24. New morning show Cold Pizza launches on Oct. 1, the tenth anniversary of ESPN2.

ESPN DEPORTES

The Spanish-language block of Sunday night baseball and football games expands to a 24-hour service in the new year.

FOX SPORTS

Fox Sports Digital Atlantic, Central and Pacific offer out-of-market sports to help keep college spirit (and rivalries) alive. Watch for the Iowa Hawkeyes at Iowa State (Sept. 13), Missouri at Kansas (Sept. 27), and a Texas hoedown with Stephen F. Austin at Sam Houston (Oct. 16). Regularly scheduled Fox Sports Net shows this fall include extreme-sports wrap 54321 (5 p.m. daily), Totally NASCAR (6 p.m. daily), Best Damn Sports Show, Period (8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. daily), NASCAR This Morning (Sun. 10:30 a.m.) and Beyond the Glory (Sun. 9 p.m.).

FOX SPORTS WORLD

Building on this summer's live telecasts of the ChampionsWorld Series tour that featured Manchester United, the English Premier League returns to Fox Sports World for its 2003/04 season from Aug. 16 to May 2004. Fox Sports World will also televise live coverage of the Major League Soccer playoffs in late October, while the French soccer league returned to the network after a two-year hiatus starting Aug. 1.

FOX SPORTS EN ESPANOL

The third season for Spanish-language broadcasts of the Major League Baseball postseason starts Sept. 30. FSE has two new sports shows from Mexico: Palabra del Deporte, which highlights athletes and sports experts from Latin America (Mon. 7 p.m.), and Palco Deportivo, which highlights a different sports figure every Friday at 9 p.m.