It's one of the more intriguing college football games of the season —— a regular David vs. Goliath matchup. But the majority of viewers in San Diego County won't see it.

Fox Sports West 2 will televise No. 16-ranked Fresno State's game against No. 1 USC on Saturday night. The problem is Cox Communications —— the largest cable provider in the county —— does not carry FSW2. But Cox does carry Fox Sports West, so Cox subscribers in that time frame can look forward to an NHL game featuring the L.A. Kings and Colorado Avalanche.

I have nothing against the NHL. In person, hockey is a great sport, but it loses a lot in translation to TV. I won't watch the Kings on Saturday night, but I would tune into Fresno State-USC if I could. And I don't think I'm alone. FSW has a contract to carry the Kings, so one of the more interesting college football games of the season takes a back seat in San Diego.

The only way to get this changed in the future is to let officials at Cox know that you want FSW2 added to its expanded cable package.

In addition to Fresno State-USC, FSW2 also will carry the Washington State-Washington and Oregon-Oregon State games. Meanwhile, FSW has a month-old boxing match and the tape of a USC-Arizona women's volleyball match.

Start dialing.

Cartoon shuffle

ESPN has a strange schedule Saturday. It will carry the opening of the Virginia Tech-Virginia game at 9 a.m. but an hour later will switch to No. 9 Ohio State vs. No. 17 Michigan in the California, Oregon and Washington markets.

Sounds like a great game, and it's a chance to see former Vista High standout Leon Hall play for Michigan. But the Big Ten isn't playing in the Rose Bowl this season, so there is no real reason to beam this game to the West Coast.

ABC will send the Buckeyes and Wolverines to 70 percent of the country, but the network can't show it on the West Coast because of government limitations on the number of times ABC's Saturday morning children's programming can be preempted. That's the reason for the switch to ESPN here.

Military hoops

ESPN2 has a 60-minute special "Operation Hardwood" at 1 p.m. Saturday, focusing on the military basketball tournament at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

The eight-team event consisted of 13 troops per team from camps throughout Kuwait. Bobby Cremins (formerly of Georgia Tech), Mark Gottfried (Alabama), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Bobby Lutz (Charlotte), Dave Odom (South Carolina) and Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma) were guest coaches.

"Before we went to Kuwait, a USO official told us that our experience in Operation Hardwood would change our lives," said announcer Jay Bilas. "It did. As Dave Odom said on our last night there, aside from our children being born, participating in Operation Hardwood with our troops and with each other was the most-meaningful experience of our lives.

"Our men and women in uniform are heroes, and it was an honor for all of us to be among them."

The program will re-air on Dec. 31.

Around the dial

• ESPN2 will have bonus coverage of the 4 p.m. football game between No. 19 South Carolina and Clemson before switching viewers over to the game between No. 4 LSU and Mississippi at 4:45 p.m.

• ABC gets one of the all-time stinkers on "Monday Night Football" when the Minnesota Vikings (4-5) travel to the Green Bay Packers (2-7).

• Adelphia Channel 3 has live coverage of tonight's 7:30 La Costa Canyon at Escondido prep football playoff game.

• Channel 4 will carry the Wyoming-San Diego State football game at 5 p.m. Saturday with Eddie Doucette and Blaine Fowler calling the action.

• Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker call the Bills-Chargers game at 1 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

• TNT will carry the 23rd PGA Grand Slam live at 4 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Wednesday. The event, which will be played on Kauai, features a four-man field of Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Michael Campbell and Phil Mickelson. The purse is $1 million with $400,000 to the winner.

• Wayne Hagin, a former San Diego State baseball player, has been let go after three years as play-by-play voice of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals hired John Rooney, the long-time voice of the White Sox, to replace him. Hagin, who signed a contract extension in the middle of last season, will be paid for the 2006 season. Cardinals officials said they consider Hagin among the best play-by-play men in the business, but they view Rooney the No. 1 guy.

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