Notre Dame and NBC agreed to a five-year extension worth about $9-million, allowing the network to broadcast the school's home football games through 2010.
This season's ratings were tied for the worst in the 13 years the network has shown the school's games.
Sunshine bowls
Sunshine will air preview specials on Florida in the Outback Bowl and Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
Seminoles Postseason Bowl Preview airs at 5 p.m. Wednesday with Whit Watson and Brady Ackerman previewing the matchup with Miami. It will be repeated at 11 a.m. Dec. 27, 8 p.m. Dec. 31 and 3:30 p.m. Jan. 1.
Gators Postseason Bowl Preview premieres at 11 a.m. Dec. 28 with Watson and Ackerman breaking down the matchup with Iowa. It repeats at 11 p.m. Dec. 29, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 31 and 8:30 a.m. Jan. 1.
Rivers in lead role
From fired NBA coach to lead TV analyst ...
That's the fast-lane path Doc Rivers has taken. Rivers will work with Al Michaels on ABC's Christmas Night telecast of the Rockets-Lakers game (8:30).
Before coaching Orlando, Rivers did NBA work for Turner Sports. He'll also work ABC games with Brad Nessler.
Sean Elliott and Dan Majerle will join Nessler for ABC's Dallas-Sacramento game at 6 p.m. on Christmas.
Who you gonna call?
On Wednesday's Best Damn Sports Show Period, Joe Horn said he was hurt by criticism by Saints coach Jim Haslett of his end zone cell phone stunt: "It hurt a little bit. But Jim was absolutely right. It was selfish at the time. I was happy. I was excited about scoring. We were winning the football game."
Quotable
CBS's Phil Simms on Horn's stunt: "Did it drive me crazy when Horn broke out the cell phone after scoring a touchdown against the Giants on national television? No, it didn't drive me crazy. But what does drive me crazy is listening to those who say, "Come on, let the players do this. The NFL stands for No Fun League.' To those people, I say: Just shut up. After all, where do we draw the line?"
Around the dial
ESPN will televise its 200th NFL game at 8:30 Saturday night when the Patriots play the Jets. Mike Patrick has called play-by-play for all of the games. Starting in 1987 and each season since, Sunday Night Football has been the highest-rated series of any kind on ad-supported cable television. ... Five-time Grammy Award-winning singer Janet Jackson will be the featured performer at the Super Bowl's halftime show in February.
- Information from Bloomberg News and the Philadelphia Daily News was used in this report.
