The start of the National Football League...

The start of the National Football League regular season, several attractive college football games and the men’s and women’s finals at tennis’s U.S. Open are among the weekend’s sports television viewing choices. However, the Dodgers’ last gasp effort to stay in the National League West race will not be seen on any Southland viewing screens.

The injury-weakened Rams open play Sunday against the Green Bay Packers with KCBS Channel 2 and KFMB Channel 8 airing the game at 10 a.m. Because the Raiders have decided to stay in Los Angeles for now, only one other NFL game can come into Los Angeles on network television Sunday, with KNBC Channel 4 opting to air the Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns matchup at 1 p.m. Cable’s Turner Network Television begins its NFL regular season coverage with the New York Giants playing host to the Philadelphia Eagles at 5 p.m. Sunday.

College football’s game of the day matches defending national champion and No. 1 ranked Miami (Fla.) and No. 16 Brigham Young at 4:30 p.m. today on ESPN. No. 19 UCLA opens its season against No. 23 Oklahoma at 12:30 p.m. today on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

Russell White, a prep standout at Encino Crespi High School, is expected to make his collegiate debut today when California visits Wisconsin, 9:30 a.m. ESPN. White, forced to sit out his freshman year after failing to meet the NCAA’s Proposition 48 academic standards, is second on the Bears’ depth chart at tailback and will return kickoffs.

Boris Becker meets Andre Agassi in a men’s semifinal match as coverage of tennis’s U.S. Open begins at 8 a.m. today on KCBS Channel 2 and KFMB Channel 8. The women’s singles finals follows with the John McEnroe-Pete Sampras semifinal concluding the day’s action. The same stations will air the men’s singles final at 1 p.m. Sunday.

SportsChannel televised Friday night’s series opener between the Dodgers and division-leading Cincinnati Reds, but will not air games today or Sunday.

“The baseball schedule we lay out is done in November,” explained Rockey Flintermann, SportsChannel’s director of programming and network operations. “When we sat down in November, we thought San Diego and San Francisco would be contending for the pennant. We have three telecasts against San Diego left and one with San Francisco. Cincinnati comes as a surprise.”

Flintermann also said he was reluctant to change his schedule out of fairness to fans who had purchased tickets after consulting the television schedule.