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If the Jazz can't get on national TV when they play Golden State, when will they get on national TV?

Rarely. Extremely rarely.

The Jazz will make a grand total of two regular-season appearances on ESPN; one on TNT; and three on NBATV this season. That's six out of 82 games, or 7 percent.

(Being on NBATV isn't exactly a national telecast, however. The channel is in about 57 million homes of 114.7 million total. ESPN is in 94.5 million; TNT is in 95.2 million.)

No, it's not fair to point out that Monday's Jazz-Warriors game wasn't on national TV … because there were no national games on Monday. But, clearly, national programmers are convinced that viewers are't interested in this Utah team.

National telecasts have little to do with quality, however. The shockingly bad Lakers, for example, are on TNT 10 times; ESPN nine times; NBATV nine times and ABC once — 35 percent of their games.

The shockingly good Warriors are on ESPN seven times; TNT six times; NBATV six times; and ABC four times — 28 percent of their games.

Yes, the schedules are set before the season. But even someone who knows as little about the NBA as me knew the Warriors would be a lot better than the Lakers.

If I was an NBA exec or a programmer at TNT or ESPN, I'd do everything possible to get the Warriors on TV more often right now. Their ongoing winning streak is ratings gold.

That matters to the NBA. But, to be honest, the number of times Utah is on national TV only matters to Jazz fans who don't live here in Utah (or surrounding areas) and can't catch all the games on ROOT.

Being the socialist organization that it is, the NBA shares national TV revenue equally. And, unlike college, sports, national TV exposure does nothing to help you get into the playoffs.

You win enough games, win in the playoffs and you win the NBA title.

Of course, the odds of Utah doing that would seem to be about equal to the odds of the Jazz being on national TV as often as the Lakers.

Secret information • How many viewers tuned in to watch Utah hold on to beat Colorado on Saturday afternoon? What was the size of the audience for BYU's big win over Utah State?

I don't know. Neither the Pac-12 Network nor the CBS Sports Network releases ratings information. To anyone.

We can guess that the numbers for the two channels aren't exactly huge, however. I've never met a TV executive who wasn't incredibly eager to share good rating news.

ESPN bowl announcements • For a couple of weeks in September, BYU fans held out faint hope that the Cougars might be invited to a New Year's Day Bowl. Until Oct. 24, Utah fans were thinking maybe a playoff spot. And hopes were high for a big bowl berth for another three weeks.

Heck, there was even (rather unrealistic) hope in Logan that Utah State might snag a berth in a New Year's Bowl.

All those hopes are long gone. But there's still reason for local fans to tune in to ESPN's bowl announcement show on Sunday at 10 a.m.

The four-hour show will be mostly about who makes it to the Cotton, Orange, Peach, Fiesta, Rose and Sugar Bowls.

But there are dominoes that will fall (or not) in the Pac-12 and Mountain West that will affect the Utes and the Aggies. And ESPN will decide which of two bowls it owns — Hawaii or Las Vegas — will host the Cougars.

It's all about TV. And almost all about ESPN, because ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC will telecast 38 of the 41 postseason games.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.