• by January 3, 2001

(AP) - Adding Notre Dame to the Bowl Championship Series didn't pay dividends for ABC Sports. The preliminary ratings for the network's New Year's Day telecasts of the first two BCS games, the Rose and Fiesta Bowls, dropped about 4% from last season.

Notre Dame's 41-9 loss to No. 5 Oregon State in the Fiesta Bowl drew a 10.4 overnight rating and 17 share. That's down 5.5% from the 11.0/19 earned by last year's Orange Bowl, played in the same time period and won 35-34 in overtime by Michigan over Alabama.

Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets, covering about 65% of U.S. TV homes.

The Rose Bowl, in which Washington beat Purdue 34-24, was down nearly 3% from last year, when Wisconsin beat Stanford 17-9.

ABC is paying $525 million for seven years of TV rights to the top four college bowl games, including Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl and Wednesday night's Orange Bowl between No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 3 Florida State.