St. Louis ? The seemingly imminent U.S.-Iraq war has sent CBS scrambling to try to ensure the NCAA Tournament is televised in some form if games are pre-empted by news coverage.

“If there is a war going on and there are important news elements to cover, that will take precedent over a sporting event,” CBS Sports President Sean McManus said recently.

There have been talks to move games to ESPN and ESPN2, as well as cable networks also owned by Viacom–which is CBS’ parent company. Those networks include MTV, VH1, TNN, Nickelodeon, TV Land and BET.

Big money is at stake. CBS is in the first year of an 11-year deal that pays the NCAA $6 billion to televise the tourney — about $545.4 million a season.

There also are complications. Because of technical limitations, cable outlets might not be able to cover the event the same way CBS does–often switching from game-to-game in the early rounds.

ESPN and ESPN2 have few scheduling conflicts during the opening two days of the tourney. An NHL game Thursday night and two NBA games Friday are the only live events scheduled.

But there are conflicts this weekend. ESPN-ESPN2 has formed a major alliance with the NCAA Women’s Tournament, which opens Saturday. For the first time every game of that event is scheduled to be televised — either on ESPN, ESPN2 or though a satellite package. The ESPN-ESPN2 combo is scheduled to carry at least 10 hours of combined coverage Saturday, 12 hours on Sunday.