They Might Need More Running Room

ESPN2 will televise the USC and UCLA season openers back-to-back Saturday. So what if USC-Hawaii runs long and is still going on when UCLA-San Diego State is scheduled to begin? Odds are that will be the case.

USC-Hawaii begins at 4 p.m., UCLA-San Diego State at 7:15. These days, considering all the commercial breaks, it’s rare when a college football game is played in 3 hours 15 minutes.

So ESPN2 probably will be faced with a delicate situation. Does it leave USC-Hawaii before it’s over? Does it join UCLA-San Diego State in progress? Or does it try to get the officials in San Diego to hold up the kickoff?

According to ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz, if there is an overlap, a decision on how to handle it will be made at the time.

Meanwhile on Radio

Trojan and Bruin fans who don’t want to miss a single play can always turn to flagship stations 1540 and 570. And the radio stations also have a lot of pregame and postgame coverage.

Trojan pregame coverage on 1540 this season will begin three hours before game time. It will feature Mark Willard, former Nevada Las Vegas coach Harvey Hyde and sideline reporter John Jackson. The postgame coverage will feature Willard and Anthony Davis. The game announcers again will be Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald.

Although 1540 has increased its power and its reach, USC has added 1370 to its network in order to improve coverage in the Inland Empire and Orange County.

Tonight at 7, KMPC offers a one-hour taped season preview, “USC Football: Right Here, Right Now.” Petros Papadakis is the host and guests include Pete Carroll, Mike Garrett and The Times’ Gary Klein. The show will be repeated Saturday at 9 a.m.

This season 570 will have two hours of

Bruin pregame coverage and then two hours of postgame, featuring Wayne Cook, Tim Cates, Vic “The Brick” Jacobs, game announcers Chris Roberts and Matt Stevens and other station personnel.

Lee Hamilton’s new Saturday show on 570, which will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., makes its debut this weekend. Hamilton also will be on the air after 570’s broadcasts of every Raider game this year, beginning with Thursday night’s NFL season opener. On Sundays, Hamilton usually will be on for four hours.

NASCAR’s Big Weekend

NASCAR’s Sony HD 500 Sunday at California Speedway in Fontana, televised by NBC, is more than just another Nextel Cup race. For one thing, the 5 p.m. start makes it a prime-time event in the East. For another, it’s one of the final two qualifying races for the 10-driver, 10-race “Chase for the Championship” that begins Sept. 18. NBC’s pre-race coverage Sunday begins at 4 p.m.

It should be a particularly interesting weekend for commentator Wally Dallenbach. Besides calling Sunday’s race with Bill Weber, he’ll also compete in Saturday’s Busch race, which NBC will televise at 5:30 p.m. It will be Dallenbach’s second Busch race of the year. The other was at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

NHL TV Update

Outdoor Life Network has announced its NHL schedule, which begins Oct. 5 with a national telecast of the New York Ranger-Philadelphia Flyer game. The Kings will appear on OLN four times, beginning with a home game against Dallas Jan. 2. The Mighty Ducks will appear on the network twice. Their first appearance will be Jan. 23, when they play the Kings at Staples Center.

OLN also announced that Mike “Doc” Emrick, the voice of the New Jersey Devils, will be the main play-by-play announcer. The rest of the announcing roster has yet to be completed.

NBC’s NHL coverage begins Jan. 14. The Kings will appear on NBC twice, the Ducks once.

Prep Football Galore

ESPN and ESPNU are televising high school football games nationally, FSN has a five-game national package and FSN West 2’s local coverage begins next Thursday night with Crenshaw versus Taft at Canoga Park High. Channel 58 is offering taped coverage of L.A. City Section football.

On radio, 1540 will have a high school football show offering scores and highlights every Friday night, beginning Sept. 9. Fred Roggin will serve as the host.

High school football also is becoming part of the reality TV craze. An eight-episode ESPN series, “Bound for Glory,” about the makeover of a once-proud high school program in McKees Rocks, Pa., makes its debut Sept. 20. The series will feature Dick Butkus, who will serve as the team’s coach for one season.

Short Waves

Entertainer Nick Lachey will be a regular contributor on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” beginning with this Saturday’s 7:30 a.m. show, which will originate from Pittsburgh, site of the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game. That game will be televised on ABC at 5 p.m. It is the final game of an ABC tripleheader.

The AVP beach volleyball season concludes this weekend with the Chicago Open, where triple points will be on the line and the first winners of the Nissan Championship Series will be determined. NBC will televise the men’s final Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and the women’s final Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

The Sparks’ playoff game tonight at Sacramento, which will be broadcast on 690 but not televised locally, could be announcer Larry Burnett’s last. Burnett, dropped by 570 as the Laker pregame and postgame host, said he would probably have to move to another city to find employment. Tonight’s game between the Sparks and Monarchs will be televised nationally on NBA TV, as will Sunday’s, if there is one.

“CMI: The Chris Myers Interview,” which aired this summer as a three-episode pilot, begins a regular 13-week run Sunday at 10:30 p.m. The first featured guest will be Randy Moss.