CBS, which is in the first year of a $6billion, 11-year contract to broadcast the NCAA tournament, had been in discussions with ESPN in case war coverage prevented the network from televising early round games which take place through to the weekend.
ESPN released a statement that read: "We've reached an agreement with CBS to televise NCAA games they may shift due to potential war coverage. Should it be necessary, we can accommodate all telecast windows on Thursday and Friday and some over the weekend.''
CBS has also said that it may switch some tournament games to TNN or Nickelodeon, cable networks that are also owned by CBS' parent company Viacom. Financial terms of the agreement with ESPN weren't disclosed.
Thirty-two games are scheduled during the first round on Thursday and Friday, with the second round to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
While CBS and ESPN are owned by competing companies, moving the games to the latter dedicated sports network was considered to be helpful to viewers with cable or satellite TV services because they're already familiar with ESPN's coverage of college basketball.
ESPN, Nickelodeon and TNN each reach about 20 million fewer homes than CBS' national reach of 107 million.
The NCAA has already confirmed that the onset of war with Iraq will not see the cancellation of any scheduled games.
As the first air raids begin, US free-to-air broadcaster CBS has agreed to switch some coverage of the men's college basketball NCAA tournament to cable network ESPN in order to accommodate coverage of the war against Iraq.
