By Connor Ennis
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - All the talk about split national championships, poll voting and the pluses and minuses of the Bowl Championship Series have added up to one thing: a collective smile on the faces of ABC executives.

The network is the home of the BCS, televising all four bowl games involved. This year, because of the controversy, ABC will have the good fortune to televise two games with a direct impact on the national title. "It wasn't exactly the way we drew it up but we sort of got championship games 1 and 1-A dropped in our laps," said Loren Matthews, senior vice president for programming for ABC Sports.

The Sugar Bowl, which airs Sunday night, was designated as this year's BCS title game. Oklahoma and LSU - the top two teams in the BCS rankings but No. 3 and No. 2, respectively, in both the coaches' and Associated Press poll - will play for the title. However, USC, which ended the year as the top-ranked team in both polls, will almost certainly win the AP title after an impressive 28-14 victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The possible split began paying dividends for ABC almost immediately. The Rose Bowl was the only BCS game not scheduled during prime-time - it began at 4:30 EST - so there was still some advertising space available when it was announced that USC would play Michigan. Individual units of advertising were reportedly being sold for $400,000 to $600,000 each before the controversy over the BCS came about.

"We started off in a strong position," said Ed Erhardt, president of advertising sales at ESPN and ABC Sports. "When the pairings were announced ... we had a second rush."

Ratings for Thursday's game were up 27 percent over last year's Rose Bowl, which had no bearing on the national championship.

After the strong showing by the Rose Bowl, however, some suspected the Sugar Bowl might not perform as well, especially with two NFL playoff games being played Sunday afternoon.

Other experts said the desirable time slot of Sunday night combined with the allure of a game with national championship implications will be enough to draw viewers.

"It's sort of a lead-in working up to it," analyst John Mansell of Kagan World Media said of the playoff games. "I don't think that's going to hurt."

But it remains to be seen if the Sugar Bowl can surpass the ratings from last year's Fiesta Bowl double-overtime thriller in which Ohio State beat Miami and drew a 17.2 national rating.

Even if the numbers for Sunday night don't get that high, ABC is expecting a strong finish to a wacky and beneficial bowl season.

"If you're a USC fan, you're watching that game. If you're a college football fan, you're watching that game," Erhardt said. "The football gods and the ratings gods are looking down on us favorably."