ST. LOUIS – The seemingly imminent U.S.-Iraq war has sent CBS scrambling to try to ensure the NCAA Tournament is televised in some form if games are pre-empted by news coverage.

CBS officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday, as a network spokeswoman said they were in meetings discussing options.

Those center on sending games to cable TV.

“If there is a war going on and there are important news elements to cover, that will take precedent over a sporting event,” CBS Sports President Sean McManus said recently.

There have been talks to move games to ESPN and ESPN2, as well as cable networks also owned by Viacom-which is CBS’ parent company. Those networks include MTV, VH1, TNN, Nickelodeon, TV Land and BET.

Big money is at stake. CBS is in the first year of an 11-year deal that pays the NCAA $6 billion to televise the tourney-about $545.4 million a season. Switching games could be costly, because ratings almost certainly would be lower because fewer people have cable than free TV.

And there are complications. Because of technical limitations, cable outlets might not be able to cover the event the same way CBS does-often switching from game-to-game in the early rounds.

ESPN and ESPN2 have are few scheduling conflicts during the opening two days of the tourney. An NHL game Thursday night and two NBA games Friday are the only live events scheduled.

But there are complications this weekend. ESPN-ESPN2 has formed a major alliance with the NCAA Women’s Tournament, which opens Saturday. For the first time every game of that event is scheduled to be televised-either on ESPN, ESPN2 or though a satellite package.

The ESPN-ESPN2 combo is scheduled to carry at least 10 hours of combined coverage Saturday, 12 hours on Sunday.

“Our commitment to the women is not going to be lessened in any way,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said Tuesday. “It’s a huge priority for us.”

Squeezing the ESPN-ESPN2 schedule even tighter is that those networks probably would receive sports events scheduled for ABC if it opts for news coverage.

ESPN and ABC are owned by the Walt Disney Co.

“We would fit those things in,” Krulewitz said.

That schedule has regional NHL coverage on Saturday (Blues vs. Detroit locally), with an NBA game and an IRL race Sunday.

Although the CBS plans are in flux, one programming decision has been made.

NBC officials announced that if its coverage of the Bay Hill golf tournament is pre-empted, it would be moved to CNBC.

There are other options to received tourney coverage.

DirecTV customers can buy coverage of the first three rounds of the tournament, for $49, although games airing locally on CBS are required to be blacked out from satellite receivers in that market.

DirecTV spokesman Jade Valine said a decision has not been made about possibly rescinding that restriction if CBS’ coverage is pre-empted.

The Yahoo internet site is carrying the broadcast of all games in the first three rounds of the tournament, for $16.95. More details, including specifications of what kind of web connection is required to receive the broadcasts, are listed at that company’s website-www.yahoo.com.