They Want Excellence, Not the Raider Game

An unlikely source stepped up this week to stem the dumbing down of U.S. television.

Channel 2, finally paying mind to the will of the intelligent football fan, has decided to bump “the dumbest team in America” -- Bill Callahan’s assessment of the Oakland Raiders; hey, it’s his team -- in order to bring local viewers Indianapolis at Tennessee this Sunday morning.

Bravo, Channel 2! The station’s original game plan was to force-feed us a whatever-happened-to matchup between the Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers and its scintillating subplot: See which team’s coach gets fired first! All that would have done is drive the area’s thinking fans to drink -- at the nearest sports bar, to take in the Colts and the Titans and the rest of a pro football menu Jimmy Johnson has called “the best NFL weekend of the year.”

If you don’t believe Johnson, listen to ESPN, which is hyping the NFL’s Week 14 schedule as “Showdown Sunday” -- and would have gone stronger with it, except “Super Sunday” was taken. “Satellite Sunday” is closer to the point, because if you don’t have access to a dish and want to keep up with all the action, these are your at-home options:

Indianapolis (9-3) at Tennessee (9-3): Sparing us the Raiders, Channel 2 will air this confrontation between AFC South co-leaders at 10 a.m.

Dallas (8-4) at Philadelphia (9-3): First place in the NFC East is at stake, kickoff set for 10 a.m. Channel 11 will televise locally.

Kansas City (11-1) at Denver (7-5): The second half of Channel 2’s AFC doubleheader features the Broncos, battling for a wild-card berth, against the Chiefs, no longer invincible after losing to Cincinnati and struggling against Oakland and San Diego in their last three games. Kickoff is 1:15 p.m.

Miami (8-4) at New England (10-2): Unfortunately, Channel 2 has no tripleheader scheduled. This 1:15 p.m. matchup of longtime AFC East rivals can be heard locally on two radio stations, KFWB and KAVL.

Cincinnati (7-5) at Baltimore (7-5): A first-place December showdown between the Bengals and the Ravens? This one kind of sneaked up on everyone. No local TV or radio, but ESPN will eventually have highlights.

Seattle (8-4) at Minnesota (7-5): Two high-scoring offenses but no local TV, no local radio and no signs of defense anywhere.

Chicago (5-7) at Green Bay (6-6): If Minnesota loses and Chicago wins at Green Bay, the Bears, with Kordell Stewart at quarterback, will be one game out of first place in the NFC North. Read about it in your Monday morning newspaper.

Carolina (8-4) at Atlanta (2-10): Prime-time Vick. Michael Vick makes his first start of the season against a swooning Panther team that has lost two games in a row and was sure hoping for more of Doug Johnson. ESPN will televise at 5:30 p.m.

It might not be the ideal way to experience “Showdown Sunday,” but it could have been worse. Pity the poor San Diegans, who are saddled with their 2-10 Chargers against the 4-8 Detroit Lions at 10 a.m. in what could be the season’s worst game. For obvious reasons, CBS will air the Charger-Lion game to only 2% of the nation.

As Jerry Glanville, sentenced to work the game as an analyst, put it, “We got the Skim Milk Game -- 2% of the country.”

Also available for viewing this weekend:

TODAY

* Oregon State at USC

(Channel 7, 1:30 p.m.)

Under the rules of an earlier era, when college football permitted NCAA Division I-A games to end in ties, USC would not have lost in overtime to Cal, making the Trojans 10-0-1 today. Oklahoma and USC would be the last remaining undefeated teams in a country crying for a Sooner-Trojan winner-take-all. But that was then, and this is life under the BCS big top, which means the Trojans need to win big today and hope Louisiana State does not do the same. The spread is USC by 21. For their own sake, the Trojans might want to think bigger.

* LSU versus Georgia

(Channel 2, 5 p.m.)

Besides playing for the Southeastern Conference championship, what else do LSU and Georgia have in common? That’s right, they both lost to Florida. And, so, where are the Gators? At home, stewing over a 6-4 record in games not played against LSU and Georgia and getting ready for the Outback Bowl consolation prize.

* Oklahoma versus Kansas State

(Channel 7, 5 p.m.)

The Big 12 championship game is one for the time capsule. “Yes, fellow football archeologists, in the early years of the 21st century, Kansas State did, on very rare occasions, play a tough opponent.”

* Notre Dame at Syracuse

(Channel 7, 10 a.m.)

According to the BCS instruction manual, USC needs a Notre Dame victory in this game because, let’s see here, right, a Notre Dame victory would help USC’s strength of schedule. BCS: Bedfellows, Curious, Strange.

* Kentucky versus UCLA

(Channel 2, 10:30 a.m.)

Switching to basketball, it’s the Wooden Classic. Kentucky is undefeated, UCLA is undefeated, what more could a Bruin fan want? Besides more games against Vermont and UC Riverside.

SUNDAY

* Dallas Stars at Mighty Ducks

(Channel 9, ESPN2, 5 p.m.)

I was watching the Ducks on TV the other night and there was Jiggy the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man towering over the competition, terrorizing the NHL, before someone started quoting the league rule book and then he vaporized and ... oh, wait, was that the Ducks, or was that “Ghostbusters”?

The NHL hasn’t found anything illegal about Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s pads, but could the rumors and reports of complaints be weighing on him? Giguere was pulled from the Ducks’ 7-2 loss to Detroit and through Thursday ranked 32nd in goals-against average among goalies who have appeared in at least 10 games this season. That includes Giguere’s backup, Martin Gerber.