CCAA Tournament May Not Be on TV

An advertising division of the Los Angeles Lakers does not have an agreement with Prime Ticket to broadcast the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. postseason tournament March 4 and may have misrepresented that fact to conference officials.

Sportsworks, an arm of California Sports Inc., parent company of the Lakers, approached the conference in October for the right to package a broadcast of the men’s and women’s championship games. From the beginning, said CCAA Commissioner Tom Morgan, Sportsworks made it clear that it had already secured air time on the Prime Ticket cable channel.

On Friday, Don Corsene, Prime Ticket vice president of programming and production, said he has never heard of Sportsworks.

“We are booked through April, so there is no way that it will be on, even on tape delay,” he said.

Tina Crossland of Sportsworks said a person in her firm secured air time for the games on Prime Ticket on a tape-delayed basis. But she was not sure whether a Los Angeles-area station would carry the games. Six of the eight schools in the CCAA are serviced by L.A. television stations.

CCAA President Ken Walker of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, in charge of the TV negotiations, did not return several phone calls.