NBC Mulls Sacking XFL

March 27 -- The XFL's postseason games next month will determine not onlythe first XFL champion but also the future of the fledglingfootball league.

During the past week, the two partners in the league — WorldWrestling Federation Entertainment and NBC — have made it clear inseparate published reports that the partnership is seriouslystrained and might not last another season.

NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol told the Washington Post in astory published Sunday that the XFL "will have to show a marketswing in the ratings in the postseason for it to have a real shotbeyond this year" and that "a decision whether to go or not to gowould be made no later than the end of April."

An NBC spokesman said Monday the network would not commentbeyond Ebersol's published statements. As for the rest of thisseason's XFL games, NBC will not allow its affiliates on the WestCoast to air the games on tape delay, something the stations havelong been asking for, he confirmed.

Potential Partnership With UPN

WWFE chairman Vincent McMahon told The New York Times onSaturday that he is prepared for NBC to seek an early exit from itstwo-year deal. Because he firmly believes the league has nofuture without a primary broadcast partner, WWFE is talking withUPN about becoming that partner.

"We're talking about UPN's role in the XFL," UPN chiefoperating officer Adam Ware told The Hollywood Reporter. Ware saida decision about the network's involvement with the football leaguewill be made in May, after UPN reviews the ratings for the games ona local basis.

UPN's affiliates are not as worried about the ratings for theXFL games they air Sundays because "they're not awful," said DaveHanna, president of Lockwood Broadcast Group and chairman of theUPN affiliate board.

But in the final analysis, UPN's affiliate stations willprobably "go with the flow" and abide by whatever decision ismade by UPN, Hanna said.