When you're building a cable TV network, securing San Diego -- the most-cabled market in the United States -- is a big move.

So when Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable came on board with ESPNU earlier this week, it was a big deal for the network.

"It took a while, but we're really happy to get this done," said Burke Magnus, vice president and general manager of ESPNU. "No doubt, getting into the Southern California market, getting Cox and Time Warner on board is important."

ESPNU launched in March 2005 and carries no fewer than 300 live events a season and up to 650 events overall.

It will take a little work, and a little cash, for San Diego viewers to get ESPNU. Like ESPN Classic, CSTV and the mtn., ESPNU is available only to digital cable subscribers, and you need to purchase the sports tier.

It's a little pricey, but if you enjoy college sports, the package -- especially with ESPNU on board now -- is worth it.

ESPNU has agreements with most of the top conferences -- Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big East. And it touches most of the smaller conferences.

"Our focus is on mass-appeal sports -- football, men's and women's basketball," Magnus said. "Those sports are at the top of the food chain for us.

"But we carry quite an array of NCAA championships -- 22 in all."

Those championships include ice hockey, lacrosse, baseball, softball and volleyball.

In the spring, ESPNU carried the NCAA baseball playoffs from the San Diego Regional.

ESPN2 and ESPNU just announced that those networks will carry the inaugural Anaheim Classic, an eight-team men's basketball event from the Anaheim Convention Center in November.

The teams include USC, Southern Illinois, Miami (Ohio), Tennessee Chattanooga, UC Irvine, South Alabama, Mississippi State and the University of San Diego.

"We want to give San Diego programming relevant to San Diego," Magnus said.

Because San Diego State and the Mountain West Conference are locked into an incredibly bad deal with the mtn., USD will get the bulk of the coverage on ESPNU in San Diego.

ESPNU also has a high school football package that will include the Oct. 12 Poway-Torrey Pines game.

And former Torrey Pines and Palomar College star quarterback Tom Luginbill is ESPNU's high school football expert.

"Our big thing is that we believe fans want to see games," Magnus said. "Certainly we have our share of shows, but for us, games are where it's at."

Reversing his field

Former USC and San Diego State football coach Ted Tollner, who was believed to be the frontrunner for the radio analyst job next to Ted Leitner on Aztecs games on KOGO (600), has agreed to return as color analyst on USD broadcasts.

Tollner, who called USD games last season, joins Chris Ello on CASH 1700 after San Diego State officials failed in their efforts to get him back on the Aztecs' team.

Previous commitments will force Tollner to miss three USD games.

Tollner's decision leaves SDSU back at square one, with the talk of Leitner and Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton teaming up growing louder.

The Aztecs open their season on Sept. 8 at Washington State.

Racing from Del Mar

The Breeders' Cup Challenge and its "Win and You're In" format -- in which a race winner automatically qualifies for the $23 million Breeders' Cup World Championship -- will be carried by ESPN2 at 4 p.m. Sunday from the Del Mar Racetrack.

The races are the Grade I $1 million Pacific Classic and a pair of Grade II events, the $200,000 Pat O'Brien Handicap and the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap.

Highlighting the Pacific Classic is an attempt by Lava Man to win the Southern California handicap triple -- the Santa Anita Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic -- for a second straight year.

Kenny Mayne will host the show along with analysts Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss and reporter Jeannine Edwards.

Local notes

- CBS will air Sunday's Chargers-Rams exhibition game live at 5 p.m., with Ian Eagle and Phil Simms calling the action.

- Steve Quis pulled a rather odd coast-to-coast double last Sunday. First, he called the Padres-Reds day game in Cincinnati. He then boarded the team charter, flew to San Diego and hosted the Chargers postgame show on KIOZ (105.3-FM) after the Seahawks-Chargers game. Quis was listening to the Chargers' game on the plane and was over Yuma with 13:45 to play in the game. The Padres landed with 3:30 to play. Quis grabbed his bag, jumped in his car and reached Clear Channel's Serra Mesa studios with 30 seconds to spare.

NFL happenings

- Tiki Barber will make his NBC Sports debut during halftime of the Sunday night game between the Giants and Ravens.

- Hank Williams Jr. will return to "Monday Night Football" with a new version of "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night." This year on ESPN, he'll be joined by guitarists Brian Setzer (Stray Cats), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), signer Gretchen Wilson, keyboardist John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting), bassist Bootsy Collins (Parliament Funkadelic) and drummer Cindy Blackman (Lenny Kravitz).

- DirecTV is launching a new service that will enable its "2007 NFL Sunday Ticket" customers to access an Internet stream of games on their PC or laptop via a SuperFan option.

- NBC's "Sunday Night Football" finished its inaugural season in 2006 as the No. 6 TV show, averaging 17.5 million viewers. It was the best viewership number for a network prime-time NFL package since ABC's "Monday Night Football" had a viewership of 18.5 million in 2000.

Wall-to-wall Little League

- ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will carry all 32 games from the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., starting at 11 a.m. today with the Great Lakes vs. Northwest game on ESPN. At 1 p.m., ESPN2 has Caribbean vs. Japan, with Latin America vs. Asia-Pacific at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 and Southeast vs. Northwest at 5 p.m. on ESPN.

Gary Thorne, Orel Hershiser and Dave Ryan will work the games from Lamade Stadium.

Dave Pasch, Orestes Destrade and Sophie Cortina will work the games from Volunteer Stadium.

Dusty Baker will join Thorne, Hershiser and Ryan for Tuesday's West-Midwest game at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

Brent Musburger will jump in with Hershiser, Baker and Erin Andrews for the U.S. semifinals on Wednesday and Thursday. Musburger will also call the U.S. and International championship games and the World Series championship game.

Hoop it up

NBA TV will carry all 40 FIBA Americas Championship 2007 games, starting with Wednesday's tipoff contest between Uruguay and Panama at 12:30 p.m. The event features 10 of the world's best national teams, including 2004 Olympic gold medalist Argentina, 2007 Pan American Games Champion Brazil and host United States.

ESPN2 and ESPN Classic will carry all U.S. games live, with U.S. replays on NBA TV.

The winner and runner-up from the games played at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas automatically qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

The U.S. team includes Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Several other NBA players will represent their countries, including Carlos Delfino (Raptors/Argentina), Leandro Barbosa (Suns/Brazil), Samuel Dalembert (76ers/Canada), Carlos Arroyo (Magic/Puerto Rico), Raja Bell (Suns/U.S. Virgin Islands) and Esteban Batista (Hawks/Uruguay).

Around the dial

- The final round of the PGA Championship on CBS drew a 6.8 rating and a 15 share of the audience -- the fifth- highest-rated round of the event since 1986.

- NBC will carry the Visa Championship gymnastics meet on tape at 8 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. The event from San Jose features Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, who led the U.S. women to a gold medal at the Pan Am Games.

- "Rules of the Game," a one-hour quiz show highlighting the rules of golf, premiers Saturday at 1 p.m. on CBS. Viewers are encouraged to log on to www.golfdigest.com to play along with the quiz. Those completing the quiz will be graded on the accuracy of their answers.

- Dan Patrick will host his final ESPN Radio show from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. today. Patrick's show has aired since 1999. His guests will include Ken Griffey Jr., Jerry West, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Bob Costas, Keith Olbermann, Reggie Miller and Rick Reilly. The show airs locally on ESPN 800.

- FSN will air "Karch Kiraly … The King of the Beach," a tribute to the greatest volleyball player on sand, at 10:30 p.m. Monday, following the Yankees-Angels game.

- Tiger Woods will discuss his first U.S. course design, The Cliffs near Greenville, S. C., in a two-part interview that airs Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on The Golf Channel.

- NBC will have a flex schedule for its nine-week, Sunday afternoon NHL Game of the Week package that starts Jan. 20. The network will have as many as four games available to it and can choose one of those games as close to 13 days before faceoff. The other games would then be available to local carriers. In addition to nine regular-season games, NBC will carry playoff games on selected Saturdays and Sundays as well as Games 3-7 of the Stanley Cup finals in prime time.

John Maffei's TV/Radio Column appears every Friday. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.