The fact it actually is for a local cable channel focused on high school sports is telling, as it illustrates the commitment - in money, clearly, but also in labor and even channel position - behind MSG Varsity.

No one can be sure how this is going to go over when it launches Thursday, but there is no doubt that Cablevision is taking a leap into a television unknown.

So why do it? "We see this as an extension of the commitment Cablevision has had to the community over the past 30 years,'' said Theresa Chillianis, the station's general manager.

That it may be, but business is business, and another motivation is for Cablevision - which owns Newsday - to differentiate itself from competitors, as it does with its regional News 12 channels. As Chillianis put it, "MSG Varsity is part of Cablevision's ongoing commitment to deliver significant value for its customers and communities.''

(Initially, Varsity will not include advertising, but that is expected to come in time.)

The concept is complex and multifaceted, including four regionalized versions on TV Channel 14 - one for Long Island, naturally - as well as an interactive station on digital Channel 614 and msgvarsity.com, a Web site that will allow for hyper-localization.

The sprawling mandate includes more than 400 sports events (seen on tape delay) as well as activities such as marching bands, debate teams and cheerleading, and content generated both by professionals and students, with Cablevision providing equipment and training for the latter.

The anchor program will be a five-nights-a-week roundup called "High School SportsDesk,'' hosted by Shawna Ryan and Jared Greenberg.

"I don't think that has ever been done before in the history of television,'' executive producer Michael Lardner said of the nightly high school highlights show.

Also planned are a call-in show featuring Mike Quick - a veteran of metropolitan area high school coverage - an academic quiz show and a list of other stuff that consumed five pages in a recent news release from MSG.

If it's all too overwhelming to explain fully here, imagine trying to run it.

Executives say they have the personnel to deal with an inundation of content, but both the best and most challenging part of the project figures to be the direct involvement of students at schools signed up to participate.

That also is the part that has educators most intrigued.

"It's a massive undertaking, but they want it to be right and they want it to be professional,'' said Don Buckley, athletic director at St. Anthony's in South Huntington. "Everyone is excited about this in all the schools.''

That is part of the idea: Engaging teenagers, not to mention the parents who will want to see their teenagers' names and pictures on TV. But can Varsity bring together a region as vast as the New York area or even Long Island itself when it comes to a subject as local as high schools?

And will jaded 21st century students look up from their text messages long enough to watch themselves on TV or the Internet? We shall see.

"It's quite ambitious what we're doing from a programming standpoint,'' Lardner understated.

He was a three-sport captain at Great Neck North, from which he graduated in 1966, when something such as MSG Varsity would have been difficult to imagine.

Now it's less than a week from reality.