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Favorites to replace Madden-Summerall have drawbacks

Rampant speculation has Joe Buck and Cris Collinsworth replacing the venerable Pat Summerall and John Madden as Fox's No. 1 NFL broadcasting team this fall. But while both are well-known, the move might not be as easy as it looks.

Buck might be the network's best play-by-play man, but his commitments to its baseball coverage -- which would keep him occupied through the World Series -- would make a full NFL schedule difficult, if not impossible.

And network officials might be concerned about upsetting the chemistry of its popular Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, featuring Collinsworth, Terry Bradshaw, James Brown and Howie Long.

Given the suddenness of Madden's departure, Fox Sports chairman David Hill and president Ed Goren might take their time before making any announcement.

For Fox, allowing Madden to leave might have been partly a cost-cutting measure, though it reportedly tried to sign him to a three-year deal at a cheaper salary.

The network reported to the IRS this quarter the value of its three major sports contracts has fallen by more than $900-million: the NFL by $387-million, NASCAR by $297-million and baseball by $225-million. Fox is taking a one-time tax write-off.

MEANWHILE, AT CBS: CBS Sports president Sean McManus said he is happy with his network's game talent but acknowledged being less than enamored with its lineup for The NFL Today pregame show.

So he purged all but host Jim Nantz and his most recent hire, Deion Sanders, to make way for Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason.

McManus said Esiason and Marino blew him away during auditions held during the fall, so he opted to make a bold move.

"I'm the kind of guy that likes to win," he said. "I made the decision that with the current lineup of analysts that we had, we were not going to win.

"I don't mean just in terms of ratings, I mean in terms of people saying The NFL Today is the best (pregame) show on television. I didn't think we were in that position."

Ratings increased 8 percent last season but still lagged well behind Fox. Of the three studio analysts now out of the loop, Mike Ditka will remain in a reduced role, Randy Cross will return to game analysis and Jerry Glanville's contract was not renewed.

SPEED LOVERS: In its first week as Speed Channel -- the week leading up to the Daytona 500 -- the former Speedvision saw a ratings increase of 74 percent compared to the same period last year.

The new network is NASCAR heavy, but it will continue to carry Formula One racing. It announced this week it will air live practice, qualifying and race coverage for almost the entire 17-race Grand Prix schedule this year.

SPRING SHIFT: It's that time of year again. WDAE-AM 620 this weekend will begin broadcasting Rays spring training games, meaning Jim Rome's show will be pre-empted a dozen times or more this month.

When pre-empted, Rome's show will air at 7 that night unless a Lightning game or other programming interferes.

The pre-emptions include Rome's "Smack Off," the annual Good Friday listener contest scheduled for March 29. Program director Brad James promised it will be aired that evening.

FINE TUNING: The U.S.-Canada gold-medal hockey game was big here but nowhere near as big as in Canada, where about a third of the population is estimated to have tuned in during the final half-hour. ... WWBA-AM 1040's Scott Clark and Lee Wolff will debut The Sports Collectors this weekend. The show will air Saturdays from 2-4 p.m.

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