A cease-fire in the bracket wars. (Remote Patrol).(television coverage of college basketball)(Brief Article)

Office pools ready? GENTLEMEN, START YOUR PENCILS! Surely you'll watch the unveiling of the NCAA Tournament bracket on CBS, since Selection Sunday has been designated a demilitarized zone.

For the 20th year, The Eye sees and shows the field first (6 p.m. ET), a perk that comes with spending $6 billion-something for March Madnesses through 2013. But ESPN--which traditionally retaliates with brackets minutes (or seconds) behind and pacesetting analysis--is conditionally surrendering the time slot. As agreed in a summit between CBS and ESPN, presumably at the Appomattox Sheraton: ESPN will keep its selection show in the holster until 7 p.m.

CBS usually tripled ESPN's rating, but Mike Aresco, CBS programmer, says the obvious: "You always prefer having an exclusive window." The window now opens to a one-hour selection show, made possible by the NCAA releasing brackets 30 minutes earlier. In the old CBS half-hour format, there was hardly time for Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg, Jim Nantz, Billy Packer, Bonnie Bernstein, a roundtable and Ray Romano to recite matchups/throw to commercials/sit on the chair of the selection committee. Now they'll take their sweet time.

What took so long for CBS to go 60 minutes? 60 Minutes. Len DeLuca, ESPN strategist who programmed 15 NCAAs at CBS, says: "You can delay that institution past 7 p.m.--for NFL. For any other sport you get a call ...