FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS ON CABLE

Black college football game schedule is still being finalized. MAAD Sports Profiles (Thur. 11:30 p.m.) and MAAD Sports (Sat. 12 p.m.). Enhances its TV partnership with NBC for the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships with new Sunday primetime coverage starting Oct. 5 from host site Oak Tree at Santa Anita. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association event airs Oct. 25 on NBC, with CNBC also highlighting the race that weekend. The Grand Criterium from the Longchamps racecourse in France has also been added to its fall lineup of premier horse racing events. Features hometown faves Eagles, Sixers, Flyers and Phillies, with postgame coverage and news, plus college football and basketball programming. The Angelo Cataldi Show runs Mondays during the Eagles’ season, while Pro Football Thursday is on Thursdays during football season, featuring a wrap-up including Fox Sports NFL analyst Brian Baldinger and former Eagle Mike Quick. Home of live Baltimore Orioles baseball, Washington Wizards basketball, Washington Capitals hockey, DC United soccer and local and national college football and basketball. Highlights include Pro Football Thursday (10:30 p.m. throughout football season), focusing on the Redskins, Eagles and the rest of the NFC East. The Ralph Friedgen Coaches Show (Wed. 10:30 p.m.) features the coach of the Maryland Terrapins football team; Redskins Magazine (Fri. 10:30 p.m). Dog Days, preseason college football prep, runs Aug. 26-29 at 10 p.m. CSTV Football Game of the Week starts Aug. 30, featuring 12 teams from last year’s NCAA Division I-AA championships including defending champion Western Kentucky and runner-up McNeese State. On Oct. 18, three-time defending Division III champ Mount Union will visit Ohio Athletic Conference archrival John Carroll University in a meeting that may have NCAA playoff implications. CSTV features postseason action after the December playoffs with the National Junior College Athletic Association and NAIA championship games. Other fall highlights: Up to 18 teams from the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I tournaments last fall will compete in the CSTV Soccer Match of the Week, which kicks off Sept. 15 with North Carolina at Texas (women). Sunday Night Spike boasts 15 volleyball teams that competed in the 2002 NCAA championships; the action begins Sept. 7 with Florida at Stanford. Rush Limbaugh joins Sunday NFL Countdown on Sept. 7, when ESPN’s 18-game 2003 Sunday Night Football schedule starts with a rematch of last year’s AFC championship game, with the Oakland Raiders at the Tennessee Titans. The schedule wraps Dec. 28 with Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Its 2003/04 NBA regular season schedule tips off with No. 1 NBA draft pick LeBron James making his professional debut during an ESPN doubleheader Oct. 29, with the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Sacramento Kings. The ESPN/ESPN2 NBA schedule is primarily Wednesday night games and Friday night doubleheaders. Fall golf coverage includes the Bell Canadian Open (Sept. 4-7) and the Funai Classic (Oct. 23-24). The network’s first original drama, Playmakers, runs Aug. 26-Oct. 28 (Tue. 9 p.m.). Original movie The Ice Bowl, penned by Joe Eszterhas, premieres Dec. 13. The first season of the new six-year TV rights deal for the WNBA wraps up in September with game one of the finals on ESPN2 on Sept. 12, game two on ABC (Sept. 14) and game three, if necessary, on ESPN2 on Sept. 16. ESPN2’s first-ever live coverage of the WUSA championship — the 2003 Founders Cup — airs Aug. 24. New morning show Cold Pizza launches on Oct. 1, the tenth anniversary of ESPN2. The Spanish-language block of Sunday night baseball and football games expands to a 24-hour service in the new year. Fox Sports Digital Atlantic, Central and Pacific offer out-of-market sports to help keep college spirit (and rivalries) alive. Watch for the Iowa Hawkeyes at Iowa State (Sept. 13), Missouri at Kansas (Sept. 27), and a Texas hoedown with Stephen F. Austin at Sam Houston (Oct. 16). Regularly scheduled Fox Sports Net shows this fall include extreme-sports wrap 54321 (5 p.m. daily), Totally NASCAR (6 p.m. daily), Best Damn Sports Show, Period (8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. daily), NASCAR This Morning (Sun. 10:30 a.m.) and Beyond the Glory (Sun. 9 p.m.). Building on this summer’s live telecasts of the ChampionsWorld Series tour that featured Manchester United, the English Premier League returns to Fox Sports World for its 2003/04 season from Aug. 16 to May 2004. Fox Sports World will also televise live coverage of the Major League Soccer playoffs in late October, while the French soccer league returned to the network after a two-year hiatus starting Aug. 1. The third season for Spanish-language broadcasts of the Major League Baseball postseason starts Sept. 30. FSE has two new sports shows from Mexico: Palabra del Deporte, which highlights athletes and sports experts from Latin America (Mon. 7 p.m.), and Palco Deportivo, which highlights a different sports figure every Friday at 9 p.m. FIFA Women’s World Cup 2003 (Sept. 20-Oct. 11), FIFA World Player Gala honors the best soccer players on Dec. 15; FIFA World Youth Championship (Nov. 27-Dec. 19). The winter season of Futbol Liga Mexicana runs this month through December. Two new live sports news shows premiered this month: the magazine show Mas Deporte and Acción, a weekend sports recap. The 2003 Skins Game — a charity game to support college golf at Boise State and Idaho — at the Albertsons Boise Open is telecast live on Sept. 15; this year’s foursome is Michelle Wie, John Daly, Nancy Lopez and Hank Kuehne. New reality show The Big Break starts Oct. 7. The ten-part original series pits ten scratch golfers against each other with a grand prize of a spot on the Canadian tour. The show is cohosted by golf instructor Rick Smith and fitness teacher Katherine Roberts, whose half-hour yoga-for-golfers show and one-minute fitness tips bow on the channel this month. Hi-def coverage of Major League Soccer wraps up on Oct. 25, with Los Angeles Galaxy at San Jose Earthquakes. College football games include Tulane at Navy (Nov. 1). Boxing matches across the U.S. are featured in Boxing Explosion, while Bass Champs (Sun. 11 a.m.) reels in fishing fans. This month’s Reebok 2003 Heroes Celebrity Baseball event, a fundraiser featuring Dennis Miller and Tom Arnold, will be shown this fall. Free previews for the NBA League Pass (Oct. 29-Nov. 4) and NHL Center Ice (Oct. 8-14). Starting this month, MBC is the exclusive cable home of the four major black sports conferences: the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Mid-East Athletic Conference, the Southern-Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. This fall MBC will telecast 100 live games from those conferences, adding more double- and tripleheader Saturdays to its lineup. In addition to New York Knicks basketball — and New York Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils hockey — games, MSG has 26 men’s college basketball games focusing on the Big East conference, and 14 college football games including some Big Ten games plus Army and Rutgers. New this fall, The Boomer Esiason Show will feature the former NFL quarterback interviewing other star athletes. SpeedLogic (Sun. 7:30 p.m.) celebrates fast cars, motorcycles and motorboats, traveling to special events and competitions. Channel launches Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. with signature show NFL Total Access, hosted by Rich Eisen from a Los Angeles studio. That show will be followed by NFL Films Presents (Tues.-Sat., 9 p.m.) and Playbook (Tues.-Sat., 10 p.m.) featuring postgame comments. Wednesday night’s Playbook: HD Game of the Week will let fans relive Sunday’s most exciting game in high definition. Highlights of the 2003 Tour de France will be shown in Lance Around the Clock, a daylong marathon on Aug. 31. Mysterious Encounters (Sat. 10:30 p.m.) starts Sept. 27. Bragging Rights (Sun. 9:30 p.m.) features tough challenges for duos with a grudge to bear, starting Sept. 28. This Happened to Me (Thurs. 7 p.m.), reenacting real-life tales of triumph over danger, starts Oct. 2. Fly Fishing Masters starts in October. The six-event AMA/Red Bull Supermoto will be televised live from Oct. 16-Nov. 21. Flag-to-flag race coverage of the ARCA RE/Max pro stock car racing series includes Sept. 13 from DuQuoin, Ill., and Oct. 4 from Boston. The Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is telecast on Oct. 20, 22 and 24. WNBA playoffs in September feature game one Western Conference Final (Sept. 5, 10 p.m.), game two Eastern Conference Final (Sept. 7, 6 p.m.) and game three (if necessary) for the Eastern Conference on Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. The 2003 WTA Swisscom Challenge features the Oct. 19 event from Zurich. The 2003 World Team Figure Skating Championships from St. John’s, Newfoundland (Dec. 13-14 at 8 p.m.). New this fall, sportskool Saturdays — programming related to Rainbow’s new sports instructional VOD service — will be carried on Rainbow’s owned-and-operated Fox Sports Net regional networks in Chicago, Florida, New England, New York, Ohio and the San Francisco Bay Area. Boxing legend Evander Holyfield steps into the ring against current International Boxing Federation champ James Toney in a 12-round heavyweight showdown live on pay-per-view, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. Live highlights this fall: The first-ever live coverage of the U.S. Grand Prix from Indianapolis — the only Formula One race in the U.S. — from Sept. 26 qualifying to Sept. 28 race coverage at 1:30 p.m. The inaugural Toyota All-Star Showdown, a NASCAR Touring Series all-star race (Nov. 8, 9 p.m.). Petit Le Mans, a ten-hour endurance race, Oct. 18. CART Champ Car World Series from Miami (Sept. 27-28). NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races including Richmond (Sept. 4), New Hampshire (Sept. 13), Fontana, Calif. (Sept. 20), Las Vegas (Sept. 27). Four NCTS races in October plus the season finale from Homestead, Fla., on Nov. 14. USAC Champions Night (Dec. 6, 9 p.m.). The second season of SlamBall began last week, kicking off 16 new episodes of the action-packed, extreme team hybrid sport (Mon. 11 p.m.). (See TFN.) College football highlights include LSU at Arizona (Sept. 6) and Oregon at Washington (Nov. 1). As the home of the Atlanta Braves, MLB coverage on TBS this fall includes the Braves at the New York Mets (Sept. 2, 7 p.m.); Turner South also carries select Braves games. The Summer Title Wave of 12 tournaments in seven weeks wraps with coverage from the World Team Tennis Finals from Flushing, N.Y., on Aug. 23 at 2 p.m. In the leadup to its launch, the network is producing two original programs each week that will run Saturday mornings on Spike TV: Fantasy Football 2003, for fantasy league players, and Football 101. TFN is also producing and syndicating coverage of I-AA college football starting Aug. 28 and wrapping Dec. 30 with the first I-AA All-Star Game, live from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The NBA starts its 20th season on TNT on Oct. 16, with an exhibition game featuring LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers at L.A. Lakers (10:30 p.m.). Key NASCAR Winston Cup series races on TNT this fall include the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 (Sept. 6, 7 p.m.) at the Richmond International Speedway; the Sylvania 300 (Sept. 14, 1 p.m.) at the New Hampshire International Speedway, and the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 (Nov. 9, 12:30 p.m.) at the North Carolina Speedway. The Winston Cup awards ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 5. Golf highlights include the President’s Cup from South Africa (Nov. 20-21) and the PGA Grand Slam of Golf from Hawaii (Dec. 5-6). The domestic highlight of TVG’s interactive horse racing schedule this fall is the 20th Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Oak Tree at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., on Oct. 25, featuring pre- and postrace coverage and prep races (NBC broadcasts the eight races in the actual event). On Oct. 5, TVG presents live coverage of Europe’s biggest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe from Paris’s Longchamps racecourse. The 2003 U.S. Open tennis schedule runs from Aug. 25 through the women’s doubles final on Sept. 7, while USA’s golf highlights this fall include the Las Vegas Invitational (Oct. 8-11), the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro (Oct. 16-18), the Franklin Templeton Shootout (Nov. 11) and the Target World Challenge presented by Williams (Dec. 11-12). The Championship National Series (Fri. 8 p.m.) has high school sports championships including tennis, wrestling, cheerleading and rodeo. XSTV highlights extreme sports (Fri. 10 p.m.). YES will carry live pre- and postgame coverage for all of the New York Yankees postseason games. Select preseason games for the New Jersey Nets includes regular season opener in Toronto (Oct. 29). This Week in Football starts Aug. 22; co-hosted by New York Giants’ legend Tiki Barber and the Giants’ radio voice Bob Papa. New York Football Sunday, following Jets and Giants games starting Sept. 7, is hosted by Bob Lorenz. YES will also carry at least 11 college football games live, including five Ivy League games including Yale at Princeton (Nov. 15).