NEW YORK — Bowl Championship Series games are moving to ESPN, the latest high-profile sporting event to migrate from over-the-air television to cable.

BCS coordinator John Swofford is confident that fewer and fewer viewers make a distinction between the traditional broadcast networks such as Fox, the current home of the BCS, and cable channels such as ESPN, which will start airing the games in January 2011.

Playoff games in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball are already broadcast on cable, as is Monday Night Football. ESPN announced last week that the British Open will be televised live exclusively on cable beginning in 2010.

This marks the first time, though, that the decisive game in a major U.S. pro sports league or NCAA college football or men’s basketball will air on cable.

“You’re talking about a situation where we’re seeing more and more sporting events go to cable,” Swofford, the ACC commissioner, said on a conference call Tuesday. “And certainly I think that the college football community, people who truly follow college football, are extremely well tuned into ESPN, and see ESPN as in essence for television the home of college football.”

The BCS and ESPN announced a new four-year contract Tuesday. ESPN outbid Fox, which is paying $80 million annually to broadcast the games from 2007-10.

ESPN’s offer was for $125 million a year, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. The person requested anonymity because the networks are not releasing financial details.

Fox would not offer much more than $100 million annually, the person said.

Bowl payouts will increase because of the new deal, Swofford said.

ESPN runs ABC Sports, but chose to slate the games for the cable channel, not the over-the-air network. Owning a valuable property like the BCS could help ESPN when it negotiates future subscription fees.

The agreement covers the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls each year and the BCS title game from 2011-13. The Rose Bowl will continue to be televised on ABC through at least 2010 under a separate, previous contract, said ESPN president George Bodenheimer.

ESPN is available in just over 98 million U.S. homes, which is 86 percent of all households with televisions, according to Nielsen. Swofford expects that number to grow by 2011, and ESPN notes that 95 percent of people who watched the BCS title game on Fox last season had cable or satellite.

Measuring the difference in viewership between sports on over-the-air and cable networks is difficult because ratings often fluctuate wildly depending on matchups.

The seven-game American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians averaged 11.6 million viewers on Fox in 2007. A seven-game series between the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays on TBS this year averaged 7.4 million.

But when TBS boasted appealing matchups for the 2007 division series, it actually drew 26 percent more viewers than the previous year, when the broadcasts were split between Fox and ESPN and therefore available to more people.

BCS officials decided in April to keep the current format — and not switch to a playoff system — until at least 2014, and the TV contract reflects that. Numerous ESPN commentators have disparaged the BCS structure over the years, which could make for some awkward pairings if previously critical analysts now wind up calling the games.

Bodenheimer said those opinions will continue to be voiced.

“We have a church and state operation here between editorial and on-air talent and the business side,” he said.