WINNER IS PICKED BY . . . ABC? CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT COULD USE A LOT OF WORK.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

After clanging around the empty champagne bottles from last season's Jan. 1 college football bowlapalooza, Jim Nantz had a very nasty hangover.

What CBS's then-main college play-by-play guy couldn't stomach was how cavalier ABC was in declaring Michigan the national champion after covering its Rose Bowl win over Washington State - and before CBS was to televise the Orange Bowl between Nebraska and Tennessee.

If you remember, the final Associated Press writers' poll had Michigan No. 1 while the coaches' poll went with Tom Osborne's Nebraska team at the top, so there was (as usual) no clear-cut winner.

``I felt the spirit of ABC throughout (the New Year's Day coverage) was that they awarded Michigan the championship and the season was over before our Orange Bowl,'' Nantz sounded off in some newspaper columns and on any all-sports talk radio shows that would have him. ``ABC's role was . . . almost indefensible. The last time I looked ABC doesn't award championships, the polls do.''

Look again, Jimbo.

Aside from the fact that Disney's TV properties are gettin' jiggy with the bowls - it owns the rights to 18 of the 22 games this season - Monday night's Fiesta Bowl between No. 1 Tennessee and No. 2 Florida State is all aligned to provide the climax to a successful, if not perfect, ABC-sponsored Bowl Championship Series.

But as a result, the 12 hours worth of games on the picture box today add up to nothing more than gloried booby prizes, including the UCLA-Wisconsin Rose Bowl, which ABC carries this afternoon.

In this Promised Land that TV helped create - a playoff-free national championship system using the profit-machine bowls as game pieces - it must also realize it has contributed to tarnishing whatever mystique its other loyal bowl partners have provided through the years.

``I think all the bowls are hurt some by hype for the BCS championship game, particularly the Rose Bowl,'' said Keith Jackson, whose ABC broadcasting career comes to a self-imposed end after he does today's game in Pasadena and Monday's in Tempe, Ariz., then heads into a golf-filled retirement.

This all-or-nothing mentality that allowed UCLA a chance to bypass the Rose Bowl if it qualified for a national title shot has its downside, and TV - particularly ABC - must also try to pretend these tradition-rich bowl games have something to offer after years of pumping them up.

Jackson agrees that the New Year's Day charm is gone from Pasadena. But the change that may be uncomfortable for some may also shake things up for the good of college football.

``Perhaps this will be a period of adjustment and maybe it'll clean itself up - maybe the Rose Bowl down the road will decide it's had enough of this nonsense and force the BCS to alter their demands for the alleged championship series,'' said Jackson, who holds doggedly to the idea of a four-team, post-bowl playoff that could be played later in January.

``There's a letdown in this case, tied to the long conference showdown between the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions that people have become accustomed to. But there have been many times when the city of Los Angeles and surrounding areas have had a rather laissez-faire attitude toward it, too.''

The KJ Victory Tour: On his upcoming retirement, Jackson admits if he had his druthers, ``I woulda kept my mouth shut and when it was time just walked away.''

Fortunately, his decision nearly three years ago that the '98 season would be his last allowed time for those who wanted to thank him for his 47 years of service to the game (32 as ABC's main man).

Autographed helmets and footballs are one thing. Jackson and his wife Turi Ann also received a pair of maple rocking chairs (from Penn State coach Joe Paterno), a certificate to attend a cooking school in the Napa Valley, and - what he says he'll never forget - a round of applause from 111,000 fans during a game he and Bob Griese did in Ann Arbor, Mich., this season.

``It's been a difficult year to be sure,'' said Jackson. ``I'm not used to crying this much. Maybe some folks did like my work.''

Jackson cringes at the thought of any farewell address on-camera either today or Monday. Rumors of the 70-year-old taking off a year and returning - either to ABC or CBS - are also just speculation.

The next part of his life, he says, is ``a blank page. . . . I've never been unemployed, and that may scare the hell out of me.''

Maybe not as much as some viewers will be next college football season without Jackson there to make the call.

SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth

WHAT SMOKES

Nothing hit the fan just because Al Michaels slipped in an off-color remark by mistake during the season-ending ``Monday Night Football'' telecast. In reference to a halftime interview Michaels was to do with Buffalo quarterback (and Boston College grad) Doug Flutie, Dan Dierdorf make a comment about being tired of hearing about Boston College. ``No s---,'' said Michaels. The banter was intended to tease sideline reporter Leslie Visser, a B.C. alum who can hear all audio on her headset. Although a monitor in the booth that lets the broadcasters know when they're on air was in a different position than usual, Michaels said it would be unfair to blame this on the fact ABC has been working most of the year with replacement technical people because of a strike. He simply thought he was in a standard 1 minute, 50 second commercial break near the end of the first half when it was actually just 30 seconds. ``When you do as many live hours as we do, it'll happen no matter how many safeguards,'' said Michaels. ``It's also not the first time you've ever heard that word during a football telecast with all the microphones used these days. I think people are pretty desensitized to it.'' Hey, it happens.

Since last college basketball season, Time-Warner Cable in Chatsworth added Fox's willy-nilly cable channel, FX. Which means more Valley folk can watch Saturday's UCLA-Arizona contest (7:30 p.m.) in the annual FX hostage situation with key Pac-10 games. Steve Physioc and George Raveling do the call. FX goes to about 1.8 million homes in L.A. these days.

WHAT CHOKES

Having the last word. ``They gave me the damn ball! Now we're money.'' That's the headline of the ESPN magazine Jan. 11 cover story on New York Jets receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who plays off his autobiography title with another self-scribed article (with help again from ESPN's Shelly Smith). ``There are still people who don't want to see me succeed,'' he writes ``. . . I've played under this kind of messed-up media scrutiny at a high level for three straight seasons. I took on the New York pressure that has run other guys out of town. I've held my own and I'm holding my own now, and I ain't never gonna crack. So let's dance.'' Uh, let's not and say we did, OK?

Anyone who thinks that based on NBC's ratings of ``It's A Wonderful Life'' that more people would rather spend Christmas Day with Michael Jordan than Jimmy Stewart. NBC's telecast of the Christmas classic starring Stewart posted a 5.4 overnight rating. The movie was shown instead of the Knicks-Bulls/Lakers-Suns doubleheader, which was canceled because of the NBA lockout. Jordan and the Bulls played on Christmas last year and posted a 6.6 overnight rating during the 8-to-11 p.m. time block on the East Coast.

And for a Fiesta Bowl update, let's go to Chris Fowler, Mel Brooks and Kirk Herbstreit who CONTINUE TO SIT IN AN EMPTY Sun Devil Stadium a week before the game.

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BOX: SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth (see text)