One game ---- Saturday's Ohio State-Michigan tilt ---- will go a long way toward deciding the viewing habits of college football fans come January.

The game fans want to see in the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl, the national title contest, is Oklahoma-USC. But Ohio State, ranked No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series, stands in the way of that dream matchup.

So ABC officials expect a huge audience for Saturday's 9 a.m. national telecast of the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the 100th meeting between the teams. The network is so fired up about the game that it convinced Keith Jackson, its best college football announcer, to leave the comfort of the West Coast and "fly over the mountains" to call the game.

Jackson will work the game with Dan Fouts and Todd Harris.

"I have a lot of old friends in Michigan, and I think I'll truly enjoy returning there," said Jackson, who was lured out of retirement as a national announcer several years ago with the agreement he would work only on the West Coast. "Along with the Rose Bowl, there is no better place to see a game than The Big House at Michigan.

"It's at the top of my list."

At the top of ABC's list would be a USC-Oklahoma matchup. A Michigan victory Saturday could make that game a reality. An Ohio State victory over Michigan probably sends the Buckeyes to New Orleans.

"If the Sugar Bowl isn't USC-Oklahoma, we'll have a controversy," said Loren Matthews, senior vice president of programming for ABC Sports. "But that's not all bad. As long as people spell ABC and BCS correctly, we'll be OK."

Saturday's Ohio State-Michigan game and the 12:30 p.m. UCLA-USC game at the Los Angeles Coliseum figure to be ratings bonanzas for ABC. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese and Lynn Swann will work the UCLA-USC game.

"We've ridden Ohio State and USC pretty hard the last two years," said Matthews, who said ABC is committed to the USC-UCLA game the next two years. "Fans are intrigued by those teams."

Certainly, USC-Oklahoma would be a big draw.

Football TV