At NBC, NASCAR pre-empts BYU

It was somewhat ironic that NBC wouldn't let its local affiliate, KSL, pre-empt its coverage of the NASCAR race last Saturday to telecast the BYU-Colorado State football game. Ironic because NBC itself didn't get 'round to putting the race on the air until 43 minutes after its scheduled starting time.

That was because of — you guessed it! — college football. The USC-Notre Dame game ran long, so NBC joined the NASCAR race in progress.

There's good news on a couple of fronts for KSL, however. First, NBC isn't going to pre-empt the BYU-Notre Dame game on Saturday for anything, so KSL will have the Cougars on its schedule.

And, second, NBC has dropped out of the bidding to renew its contract with NASCAR. (The half-season the network currently has is expected to go to ESPN.)

Of course, the network will probably just find something else it won't let KSL pre-empt.

SPEAKING OF NBC'S coverage of the USC-Notre Dame game, the network's performance in those final few seconds was just like that of the game's officials — almost perfect. With one glaring exception.

NBC's replays clearly showed that the officials were right when they cleared the field of the prematurely celebrating Irish fans, put time back on the clock and gave the Trojans another play at the goal line. Because those replays showed that the ball was indeed knocked out of USC QB Matt Leinert's hands and out of bounds.

Replays also showed the penalty that wasn't called on the winning touchdown, however. Reggie Bush pushed Leinert into the end zone, which should have resulted in a 5-yard penalty.

The refs didn't have the benefit of a replay. (USC coach Pete Carroll nixed it before the game.) NBC's Tom Hammond and Pat Haden did have the benefit of multiple replays and they didn't catch it, either.

IF YOU'RE WONDERING why KTVX-Ch. 4 didn't carry ABC's 10 a.m. game last Saturday and isn't carrying ABC's 10 a.m. game this Saturday, it's the Utes' fault.

OK, it's not the Utes' fault, it's ABC's fault. But it does have something to do with Utah.

ABC won't allow any of its affiliates to carry more than two games on a given Saturday. And, what with the network providing regional coverage of Utah games at 5 p.m. both this week and last week, Ch. 4 wasn't allowed by the network to carry games at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., too.