BOWLING FOR DOLLARS SUITS ESPN FINE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Bowls, glorious bowls.

There's no need to dissect the broadcast of the Insight Bowl to gain any insight as to why it's worth having a Fort Worth Bowl or what's the point of playing a Poinsettia Bowl. These games, which have fast become the equivalent of an elementary school Christmas pageant, somehow provide bank and a bundle of programming for ESPN and ESPN2, which last Tuesday ramped up on a run of 20 games and about 75 hours of airtime that will fill the void through Jan. 2.

Debates have gone on now for years as to whether this gluttony of non-sensical, non-essential bowl games chock full of Zips, Gamecocks, Cyclones and Scarlet Something-or- others have jumped the proverbial shark as a TV entity.

Problem is, enough people from the right target demos seem to still be watching. Important people, even.

``If you like the game of football, and there's nothing else going on, I'm finding myself sitting and waiting for these games to come every night,'' said Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame coach who has served as an ESPN studio analyst this season.

``Even a 45-13 game is worth watching. I mean, what else is on? A test pattern? Dr. Phil? If there's something competitive and you enjoy football on TV, you watch it.''

For an opposing viewpoint, ESPN ``College GameDay'' host Chris Fowler offers: ``Personally, I'd rather go out to see `King Kong' than some of these games. But it's all a matter of your perspective. And for me, the reward of a bowl is diluted by the number of games out there with every 6-5 team that has wins against 1-AA opponents getting in.''

Tuesday's New Orleans Bowl, which forced Southern Miss to tee it up against ... wait, it'll come to us ... in a game that wasn't even played in New Orleans actually attracted a 1.7 overnight rating.

``That shows people are tuning in,'' Fowler admits.

Or, they were grazing for poker and just were too stunned to change the channel upon another sighting of Beano Cook.

Using its SportsNation site as a sounding board, ESPN.com found that more than 12,000 ballots were nearly split on the question: Are there too many bowl games? Don't assume there was some techie making sure that only 49 percent voted ``yes,'' which is how it ended up. The evidence is in how it breaks down geographically - the Midwest, Big Sky country, the South, the Dust Bowl and even the Amish boroughs of Pennsylvania were all pro-bowls.

Somehow, ESPN has figured out a way to turn these things into something profitable. The ESPN Regional Television arm happens to own and operate the Fort Worth, Hawaii and Las Vegas bowls. ESPN Radio has the rights to six games, including the entire BCS. ABC, ESPN's corporate partner and the network doing four major bowls, joins ESPN in owning the distribution rights to all the BCS games - meaning, DVD sales of the game telecast within a few months after they're played. ESPN.com also has links to airline flights and local hotel rooms for each bowl game.

No wonder ESPN calls Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 the Capital One Bowl Week. There's all this capital to go around the Disney family, which has the TV rights to all but three bowl games.

Back in the late `60s, there were eight games for the three major networks to fight over. In the late `70s - just about the time ESPN came into being - it went up to 15. It took another leap of faith from 20 to 25 games in 2001, then to a mind-numbing 28 in 2003.

And to think, with all that's out there, none of the bowl games this year will be played on Jan. 1. Someone please explain that.

--Matt being Matt: An innocent request by an enthusiastic producer temporarily put USC quarterback Matt Leinart in an uncomfortable situation with the NCAA. But since it has all been straightened out, ESPN is off the hook after nearly sabotaging the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl.

Leinart apparently violated an NCAA rule by appearing in a Dec. 4 promo for ESPN's ``SportsCenter,'' although his eligibility was quickly reinstated after USC reported it and petitioned the NCAA to clear it up.

Explained ESPN's Fowler, who was sitting just a couple of feet away from Leinart on a set outside the Coliseum when the incident took place during the network's live bowl announcement special: ``It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. One of our producers asked if he'd do the promo, which consisted of, `I'm Matt Leinart, `SportsCenter' is next.' No one thought it was a violation. Our bad. We won't make that mistake next time.''

An ESPN spokesman issued a statement on the matter: ``We were unaware of any potential violations for taping a short `SportsCenter is next' tag during a guest appearance. It was an inadvertent mistake and we are glad it's resolved.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--Watch as NBA commissioner David Stern tries to enforce a dress code when ABC brings in hip-hop legend Chuck D to the NBA Christmas Day pregame show (9 a.m.) to discuss hoops with Mike Tirico and Scottie Pippen, as the lead-in to San Antonio-Detroit (9:30 a.m.) and Lakers-Miami (noon) doubleheader. ABC analyst Bill Walton, who will team with Steve Jones on the Spurs-Pistons game, sounded like he'd rather be in Miami to see his son Luke's team face the new-look Heat. And it's not so much the chance to see Kobe Bryant drive on Shaquille O'Neal, but to see how Phil Jackson reacts to coaching against Pat Riley. ``All these years, after Phil has been sticking the knife into Riley and throwing salt into the wounds about who had the better team, now Phil is the underdog and Pat has the superior team,'' Walton said. ``I'm of the era where players and coaches had some animosity toward each other, so I like that passion and suspense.''

WHAT CHOKES

--Put the hankies away, OK. We've finally come to the end of ``Monday Night Football's'' run on ABC. After 36 years, we reach a less-than-seminal moment - more sentimental, if anything - with the Jets-Patriots encounter this Monday. Then the series, which despite slumping ratings has remained a weekly top-10 show, pulls a detour to ESPN for 2006. For those who need some closure - or, for those who are still watching - Don Meredith and Frank Gifford have taped an opening segment (not together) that will be patched with Al Michaels to start the program, and ABC execs promise another of Meredith's warbling renditions of ``The Party's Over'' will air sometime near the game's merciful finish. Interspersed will be clips of famous moments, and a halftime tribute to Hank Williams Jr. ``We're moving it, but it was a long run on ABC and we want to give it the proper respect for those who have worked on it,'' said Norby Williamson, the ESPN and ABC executive vice president for studio and remote production. Then, can we just let it go?

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LEINART

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SOUND BYTES (see text)

BY TOM HOFFARTH