  We analyze the interplay between wetting and anchoring of nematic liquid
crystals on disordering, e.g., rough substrates in the framework of the
Landau-de Gennes theory, in situations of competing homeotropic and planar easy
axes on the substrate and the nematic-isotropic (NI) interface. The phase
diagram for azimuthally symmetric substrates is calculated. We identify two
regimes - a strongly coupled regime, where the wetting transition coincides
with an anchoring transition, and a weakly coupled regime, where the two are
separated. The anchoring transition is first order and switches between
homeotropic and planar anchoring. The two competing orientations are metastable
over a broad parameter range. Hence such surfaces can be used to generate
bistable surfaces.
