Let's face it: Last Monday night's Miami-Pittsburgh NFL game isn't going to show up on ESPN Classic any time soon. But that doesn't mean nobody bothered to watch it the first time around.

The "Monday Night Football" telecast on ESPN, which the Steelers won 3-0 only after 59 minutes and 43 seconds of slop and goo on a field in Pittsburgh that nearly unplayable, earned a 9.9 rating, ESPN's third best of the year.

It was the most watched show on Monday night and was seen by an average of 13.1 million viewers.

BCS? Or Survivor'? The "BCS Selection Show" will be shown on Fox after the network's NFL doubleheader Sunday where the polls and the computers will pick up the pieces after a truly crazy year in college football.

Even if we had a playoff system in place (and I'm one who hopes we never do), this season would make it difficult to pick the true top two teams.

Fox's show will be hosted by Chris Rose with analysts Charles Davis, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.

Play it again, Fernando: The last fight of Oxnard boxer Fernando Vargas' career, a majority decision loss to Ricardo Mayorga, will be shown again at 5 p.m. Saturday on ESPN Classic.

Speaking of replays, last week's triple-overtime college football victory by Arkansas over LSU will be shown again on CSTV at 5 tonight.

Bruins-Trojans buildup: FSN Prime Ticket will have extensive pregame and postgame coverage of Saturday's UCLA-USC football game beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Lindsay Soto hosts the show with former Bruins Danny Farmer and James Washington and former Trojans Rodney Peete, Petros Papadakis and Jeremy Hogue. John Jackson and Michael Eaves will handle interviews.

Incidentally, the USC-Arizona State Thanksgiving night game earned a 3.4 rating on ESPN, the network's highest Thanksgiving college football rating since a 4.0 for Texas A&M-Texas in 1993.

Other notes: Bob Costas' "Costas Now" on HBO (10 p.m. Tuesday) will feature a profile of Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, a look at cheating and a video essay on the year in sports. The roundtable segment will have Charles Barkley and John McEnroe. There will also be remembrances of Phil Rizzuto by Yogi Berra, Bill Walsh by Dick Vermeil, and Eddie Robinson by John Thompson. Versus will have live coverage of Davis Cup tennis at 1 p.m. today and Sunday and 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The Tennis Channel will have replays each night at 7.

XM Satellite Radio will have play-by-play of Saturday's Big 12 football championship at 5 p.m. on Channel 241, the SEC championship at 1 p.m. on Channels 199, 200 and 201 and the ACC championship at 10 a.m. on Channels 190, 191 and 192. ESPN Classic will show the NASCAR Nextel Cup awards banquet at 6 tonight with a replay on ESPN2 at 9.

Here's an award the winner probably cringes about and yet appreciates at the same time: ESPN's Erin Andrews has won Playboy.com's second "America's Sexiest Sportscaster" poll with more than 40 percent of more than 50,000 votes. Second was FSN's Soto and Speed's Krista Voda was third. Significant write-in votes were turned in for ESPN's Suzy Kolber, Speed's Wendy Venturini, ESPN's Shannon Spake and ESPN Deportes' Adriana Monsalve.

— Jim Carlisle