Courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch

(March 13, 2009) CBS again unveils the NCAA Tournament field during a one-hour show that begins at 5 p.m. Sunday (KMOV, Channel 4 locally), but for the first time in nearly three decades Billy Packer won't be analyzing the bracket for that network. After serving as CBS' lead college basketball analyst for 27 years, his contract wasn't renewed before this season and he has been replaced by Clark Kellogg.

But Packer, who has called every Final Four since 1975, will be offering his opinions elsewhere. And as he often did at CBS, he's already created controversy because his new show will be broadcast from the Wynn Las Vegas, a hotel-casino where he'll team with Bob Knight, the former longtime college coach who now is an ESPN analyst, to discuss the tourney on Fox Sports Net.

The broadcast location has caused yapping from some who think college basketball and casinos don't mix, but FSN officials insist there will be no mention of gambling and the show won't be taped in the resort's sports book. The Packer-Knight shows will air Sundays throughout the tourney (Fox Sports Midwest locally, at midnight), as well as an extra edition at midnight April 3 — the Friday before the Final Four.

ESPN generally doesn't like its personnel working for FSN, but this show was in the works for Knight before he signed with ESPN.