It's Tournament Time!

With Selection Sunday creating bracket buzz across the nation, I wanted to share a few quick facts regarding the magnitude of 'March Madness':

• Over 130 million people watched the 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2007
• 40.3 million people watched the 2007 championship game
• CBS has an 11-year, $6 billion dollar deal with the NCAA to be the exclusive rights holder of all television, radio, satellite, digital, Internet, and home video rights of the event
• CBS is charging $85,000 per :30 commercial advertisement for the day games and $350,000 for early round and prime time games
• CBS is charging $1.4 million per :30 commercial advertisement for the two (2) Final Four games and the championship game
• CBS ad television revenue will top $450 million and possibly reach $545 million when factoring in Internet and other media outlet revenues (2007 ad revenue: $400 million) 
• Top five (5) corporate spenders for 'March Madness' include:
• General Motors (Pontiac) (approx. $70 million)
• Coca Cola ($22 million)
• AT&T ($20.7 million)
• Anheuser-Busch ($15.8 million)
• SABMiller ($13.8 million)
• Other "Big" Spenders" Include: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, The Hartford Group, State Farm Insurance, Kraft's DiGiorno, Lowe's, Sheraton (all six of the aforementioned are Official Partners of the NCAA)