ITEM ONE:

FANS’ PRESEASON PREFERENCE?  THE NFL!

It follows a July survey by ESPN.com that stated sports fans looked forward more to NFL training camps than baseball’s All-Star Game, the British Open, Tour de France and WNBA All-Star Game.  Now this month, a poll by the Columbus Dispatch’s website reveals that sports fans prefer to watch NFL preseason football more – a lot more -- than the preseason games of the other three major sports.  A whopping 80.9 percent of respondents chose the NFL as their favorite preseason sport to watch on TV, over exhibition baseball (7.9 percent), and preseason NHL (7.4) and NBA (3.8).  This summer, NFL fans have 11 nationally televised games to watch – including four this weekend (8/15-19) – plus their local team telecasts.

ITEM TWO:

JAGS TOPS IN JAX

In Florida, football is big.  But in Jacksonville, the Jaguars are the biggest.  So big that of the top 25 televised sports events viewed in the city in the past 12 months, 20 were either Jaguars games (14) or other NFL games (6).  Three college games were on the most-watched list – Florida-Florida State, Florida-Georgia, and Florida-Tennessee.  Fifteen of the Jaguars’ 17 televised games (pre- and regular season) pulled higher ratings than the Florida-Florida State game, which was played in prime time.  The breakdown comes from a survey of the city’s four network television affiliates from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002.  “The Jaguars have always put up huge numbers, and will continue to do so,” says WJXT-TV (CBS) research director GARY CORBITT.

ITEM THREE:

STEELERS’ TRAINING CAMP COLLEGE WEIGHS RETURN TO FOOTBALL

Their influence must have rubbed off!  The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the midst of their 36th consecutive training camp at 1,200-student St. Vincent College in  Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  So perhaps it’s no surprise that the school has announced that it is exploring plans to re-institute its football program that was nationally recognized in the 1950s and produced a Tangerine Bowl victory in 1950.    St. Vincent would join more than 50 other colleges since 1990 that have added football to their athletic programs.  St. Vincent President JIM WILL already has been aggressively raising funds.  “The Steelers coming here is a big attraction,” says CHET FUHRMAN, a Steelers coach who has been appointed by Will to his task force to improve the school’s athletic facilities.  “You can tell recruits they would be using the same fields as the Steelers.”