Notre Dame to national title game would be a boon for TV

• TV ratings could be record-setting if Notre Dame makes it to the national title game
• Jim Rome starts his new Showtime show on Wednesday
• CBS' Jason LaConfora reports ESPN's Jon Gruden could be headed back to coaching, in college

The big weekend winners: College football's powers-that-be and ESPN.

Even as the Bowl Championship Series is refashioning itself into a four-team playoff and its championship game TV rights will go up for sale, Saturday night's upsets should lead to this season's title game getting record TV ratings.

The current record: The USC-Texas title game, after the 2005 season, which drew 21.7% of U.S. TV households.

But that could be topped with Notre Dame, which this season proved its TV drawing power was just dormant rather than dead, headed to ESPN's BCS title game if it can beat USC on Saturday. (ESPN/ABC folks will try to stay publicly neutral, but now they're all wearing Irish t-shirts under their suits.) And the table is set for ND's opponent to be the champion of the league that hovers somewhere between college football and the NFL, the Southeastern Conference (Alabama or Georgia).

NBC drew a 1.7 overnight rating, translating to 1.7% of the 56 urban TV markets measured for overnights, for Notre Dame's less-than-suspenseful 38-0 win Saturday against Wake Forest -- down 6% from comparable coverage of a Boston College-Notre Dame game last year.. But coming into the game, NBC's ND games averaged 3% of U.S. households -- up 76% from last year.

ESPN drew a respectable overnight for Baylor seemingly knocking Kansas State out of the BCS title picture Saturday night. The game drew a 2.2 overnight -- up 37% from comparable coverage of a Louisiana State-Mississippi game last year. And Oregon presumably being knocked out of the title picture Saturday by Stanford on ABC also did pretty well: It drew a 5.5 overnight, up 25% from regionalized coverage in the time slot last year.

Oregon and Kansas State, from relatively sparsely-populated states, might have produced a BCS title-game ratings bomb. Now, it looks like it was scripted.

Whither Gruden? After a CBS report Sunday that ESPN's Jon Gruden is preparing to return to coaching, Gruden was unavailable for comment. But ESPN spokesman Bill Hofheimer had this response: "Jon remains committed to ESPN. With a third of our Monday Night Football schedule still left this season, he's focused on his analyst role and preparation for our games."

CBS reporter Jason La Canfora was pretty specific Sunday, saying Gruden is putting together "candidates to join him on his staff" and is focused on college coaching -- with Arkansas and Tennessee "prepared to get into a bidding war over him."

Gruden last year signed a multi-year deal with ESPN, which, in turn, went all in with him by removing Ron Jaworski from the MNF booth. Gruden still could leave, given TV analysts with coaching prospects routinely get exit clauses in their TV deals.

But Gruden, who last coached in 2008, could go down as his generation's John Madden: After coaching success and going into TV at a relatively young age, Gruden might need a decade on-air before anybody believes he's not headed back to the sidelines.

New show: Jim Rome said Sunday that he has "never regretted leaving ESPN. Not once. I knew what I was signing up for. If I'd just swapped out a daily show for a daily show, I wouldn't have done it. But CBS was offering opportunities I wouldn't have gotten where I used to be."

Like his Jim Rome on Showtime, debuting on the CBS-owned premium cable channel Wednesday (10 p.m. ET). He says the show, on same-day tape after the first episode, will air six consecutive weeks -- scheduling hasn't been set after that.

Rome says the show will be different from the CBS Sports Network weekday show, which he describes succinctly: "Rant, interview, panel, rant, then 'see you tomorrow.' It's what I've done for 20 years. I like doing it and will keep doing it every single day. But this won't be the daily topical grind. ... I'll have people I would never normally talk to."

Wednesday's show will include actor Matthew Perry, athletes Aaron Rodgers, Tiki Barber, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher and movie producer and sports team investor Peter Guber.

Rome, whose CBS deal includes cameos on the broadcast network, suggests his latest venue will be sort of liberating: "It's premium cable, as opposed to basic cable, so I can push the envelope and do some things I haven't been able to do in the past."

Spice rack: ESPN's Hofheimer says NFL analyst Mike Ditka left the hospital Sunday after suffering "a minor stroke" Friday and will call in to ESPN's Mike & Mike in the Morning show Monday. ... MLB Network might be the next stop that Keith Olbermann eventually leaves after squabbles. But his appearances on MLBN's Hot Stove show Tuesday and Wednesday (9 a.m. ET) are being billed as cameos rather than the start of a regular gig. ... Fox studio analyst Jimmy Johnson on Sunday said Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Byron Leftwich, who subbed for the injured Ben Roethlisberger on NBC's Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh game Sunday night, has a release "you measure with a sun dial." And in CBS' studio, Shannon Sharpe told Dan Marino that Leftwich's release "makes Tim Tebow's release look like yours." Leftwich, on NBC's pregame, didn't exactly fight back: "I feel as though I can play a little bit." ... After the Fox NFL studio show aired video of Fox's Michael Strahan posing in costumes for People, which recently named him "the sexiest man alive," Fox studio host Curt Menefee noted the obvious: "The Village People called and you passed the audition."

Conference shuffle: An espn.com report that Maryland, from the ACC, and Rutgers, from the Big East, might join the Big Ten wouldn't seem to have many immediate TV implications.

Various networks declined comment Sunday, which isn't surprising as networks rarely want to publicly appear as rearranging college sports rather than covering them.

The moves might be good news for the conference's Big Ten Network in that it would likely add at least parts of two states to the channel's regional footprint -- and provide more overall TV tonnage. But it wouldn't be terribly good news for the Big East, whose TV rights are now up for grabs, as it alreadyhas lost some relatively mediagenic schools such as Syracuse and West Virginia.

Most national TV revenues going to conferences come from football. And ESPN/ABC's current ACC deal, running through 2017, only involves three football games per week. Meaning, Rutgers (9-1), now ranked No. 19 nationally, and Maryland (4-7) might not show up much on those marquee national TV games anyway.