On the heels of last fall's groundbreaking "A Passion to Play" special, chronicling the progression of women's athletics, ABC Sports makes history again Sunday (1:30 p.m., Channel 2), when it airs the Virginia-North Carolina women's basketball game from Chapel Hill.
Though CBS has aired the women's Final Four for 12 years and at least three regular-season games for the past three seasons, Sunday's game marks the first time that a network that doesn't carry the tournament has broadcast a women's game.
"When we looked at the games that were available to us in that 1:30 window, this was the best game that was available, men's or women's," said Lydia Stephans, ABC Sports vice president of programming.
The move is unusual because audiences for the fledgling women's game are decidedly smaller than for the more established men's product, but Stephans said the thought that viewers indiscriminately will watch any men's game over a game with two good women's teams is not necessarily true.
"When it comes to men's basketball, our studies have found that if you have the opportunity to watch the [top-ranked] UConn women versus a men's game with a Top 20 team in it, most of your viewers, maybe out of curiosity, will tune in a winner," said Stephans, adding that surveys indicate that up to 30 percent of the audience for women's golf and basketball is male.
To be sure, and as Stephans freely admits, the network is taking a lesser risk by sending the game out on a regional, rather than national, basis, but that is in keeping with ABC's policy to regionalize college football and basketball.
The region that will see the game includes Atlanta, Miami and Washington, all among the nation's top 10 markets, as well as Baltimore, a top 25 market.
ESPN's Robin Roberts and Ann Meyers, who did CBS' three-game women's slate, will call the game, matching the 12th-ranked Cavaliers against the defending NCAA champion Tar Heels, who are ranked fifth. Virginia beat North Carolina, 80-64, Wednesday night in Charlottesville.
Hoops corner
It's February, so that means yet another jam-packed weekend of Dr. Naismith's game, college and professional variety.
On the NBA menu, your weekend selections include tonight's Home Team Sports showdown between Washington and Miami at 7:30 and a TNT doubleheader, pitting Seattle against Atlanta at 8, and Chicago visiting Phoenix shortly thereafter. NBC's Sunday doubleheader opens with New York at Orlando at 1 p.m., followed by Houston at the Suns at 3:30, all after "NBA Showtime," at 12:30 (Channel 11).
Tomorrow's college action includes top-ranked Massachusetts visiting George Washington at noon on HTS, Iowa-Penn State at 1 p.m. on Channel 13 and Georgia Tech playing host to Maryland at 1:30 on Channel 54. ESPN has a noon-midnight doubleheader with Tulsa-Western Kentucky early and Brigham Young-New Mexico later.
Sunday's slender collegiate schedule kicks off with Syracuse at Kentucky at noon (Channel 13), followed by Notre Dame at UCLA at 3:45 (Channel 2), and an HTS doubleheader, with Rutgers-Duquesne at 4:30 and DePaul-Dayton at 7.
Off the hardwood
The football season comes to a blissful conclusion Sunday with the Pro Bowl, the weakest of the four major team sports' all-star games. The game returns to ABC (Channel 2) after a lengthy run on ESPN, which did a marvelous job with a meaningless product. The kickoff is at 6 p.m., and the really good news is that there will be no Kathie Lee Gifford.
Meanwhile, CBS debuts its extensive 1995 PGA Tour schedule with live coverage of the final two rounds of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am from, you guessed it, Pebble Beach, Calif. The rounds air tomorrow and Sunday, both at 3 p.m. (Channel 13).
And, finally, be sure to check out NBC's coverage of the Millrose Games, one of indoor track and field's most prestigious events, from Madison Square Garden at 4 p.m. tomorrow (Channel 11), with a sure highlight coming in the women's long-jump competition, featuring Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Heike Drechsler of Germany.