TV reception is improving

Tennessee-Texas on ESPN2. Connecticut-North Carolina on ESPN2. Louisiana State-Ohio State on ESPN2.

And that was just in the first two weeks of December.

The battles of the titans are all about big rewards for the powers of women's college basketball, with the big names skipping the patsies and heading straight for the challenge -- and recruiting boost -- of nationally televised matchups with fellow members of the top 25. It's become almost a necessity, both for the schools' current teams and for their chances of recruiting the top high school prospects.

That's not all, though. It's not just the RPI and the recruiting and the television time.

''The only way that we're going to further women's basketball is that the top schools must play each other," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. ''You can't win unless you're not afraid to lose. In all fairness to the players and the fans and ourselves, we've got to schedule 1 vs. 2, 6 vs. 5, so that television has marquee games that they can promote.

''If you can pique somebody's interest, that will be key. When it comes time for the playoffs, you're not having people that are beginning to watch -- it's on their minds now. It's incumbent upon the athletic directors to be on the scheduling and make sure those games are taking place."

Though limited space on the ESPN network of channels (with the exception of ESPNU, which reaches just 8 million households) cramps women's basketball, the network has been instrumental in staging some of the biggest matchups of the early season. While it can't script March, it can -- and does -- exert its influence in November and December.

But with the NFL and college football and men's basketball already competing for air time, it's not always easy to fit in women's basketball, which traditionally garners far lower ratings.

''We think strategically about how to program the network at this time of year," said Carol Stiff, senior director of programming and acquisitions at ESPN, which expanded its women's basketball coverage from 100 games last year to 130 this year. ''We need to just be really, really smart. We select a few windows of opportunity and just a few games. . . . We ask schools to play each other. Our goal is to program the best games that we're contractually obligated to do and sprinkle in some new matchups [to] try to develop a new Connecticut-Tennessee rivalry."

Though athletic directors and coaches are primarily responsible for building their teams' schedules, a whisper from one of the most powerful entities in sports likely doesn't hurt. Stiff has already started checking through depth charts for the 2006-07 season, readying her fingers to start dialing the up-and-comers, like Maryland, and the already-theres, like Tennessee.

So, it seems, the only ones to lose in the scenario are, well, the losers.

Or maybe not.

''I don't know anyone that's going to turn down great television exposure when they're asked to be involved," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. ''Obviously they've got a great product. I think it's a tremendous advantage for programs to be on TV. And it doesn't matter if you win or lose -- I used to think it did.

''My own philosophy [is] that in order to be the best you need to play the best teams. When you do that, you will identify your strengths and your weaknesses. There are times with a young team that you need to lighten your load, [but] if you're a top program, the best thing to do is to play the best teams, to find out where you stack up."

It's not just highly ranked teams that are loading up on tough competition. It's also the wanna-bes, the ones perhaps on the cusp of a postseason invitation, like South Florida. Coach Jose Fernandez flooded his schedule with recognizable names, including nonconference foes UNC, Michigan State, and LSU. Add that to a Big East slate that features UConn, DePaul, Notre Dame, and Rutgers.

''There are different philosophies about it," Fernandez said. ''I think you've got to play some people. Some people want to go into conference [play] with 10, 11 wins and a weak nonconference schedule. For us, the type of players I have, they want to be challenged."

The rough road is not for everyone. But playing the best should get the attention of the NCAA Tournament selection committee come March as well as the attention of the ESPN honchos.

And, most important for the sport itself, it might just get the attention of those sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels.

Tennessee defection
Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood was a member of Summitt's much heralded six-player recruiting class from two years ago. Now she's leaving the team, Summitt announced Monday. After a freshman year mostly lost to patella tendinitis, Wiley-Gatewood started the majority of the Lady Vols' games at point guard this season. Tennessee (9-0) ranks first in the Associated Press poll . . . Temple, in danger of falling out of the top 25, made a case to remain in the polls Monday with a win over injury-depleted Georgia. Having dropped consecutive games to Florida and Stony Brook, Temple (led by forward Candice Dupree) fell from a high ranking of 18 at the end of November to No. 25 the past two weeks.

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com. Material from wire services was used in this report.