"One element missing from" the NCAA men's basketball
tournament "is star power," according to Prentis Rogers of
the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, who writes that "although it might
seem odd, it actually is a good thing for CBS." Rogers:
"With so much time and money invested in the tournament, it
is critical for CBS that the event become immune to the best
players leaving early for the NBA. And it appears that
viewers are accepting game power over star power." Rogers
adds that on Thursday night, CBS had "planned to send"
Atlanta-area viewers the Gonzaga Univ.-Purdue Univ. game,
but local affil WGNX-CBS "polled its viewers Monday" and
found that 60% preferred the MI State Univ.-Syracuse Univ.
game. So, CBS has "honored WGNX's request to switch its
primary telecast" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/22).
CONFLICTS OF OPINION? In Minneapolis, Judd Zulgad
reports that WCCO Dir of Programming & Research Jeanine
Socha said that the station, which will carry Friday's LSU-
-Univ. of WI game, wanted to simultaneously show Friday's IA
State Univ.-UCLA game on Midwest Sports Channel, but CBS
told WCCO that it "wouldn't allow two games to be shown at
the same time on different stations." Instead, WCCO will
air the IA State-UCLA game on tape delay at 1:05am Saturday
morning (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 3/22). But USA TODAY's
Rudy Martzke reports that CBS will allow its affils in the
Fort Myers and West Palm Beach markets to air the Univ. of
FL-Duke Univ. game, while "alternate stations in those
markets" pick up Univ. of Miami (FL)-Tulsa (See THE DAILY,
3/21). In Miami, the CBS affil will carry the Univ. of
Miami (FL)-Tulsa Univ. game, while the city's UPN affil will
air the Univ. of FL-Duke Univ. game (USA TODAY, 3/22).
NO ONE LEFT STANDING: BLOOMBERG's Scott Newman reports
that Sandbox.com's NCAA tournament contest, which offered
$10M to the contestant who picked a perfect bracket, lasted
56 hours. By last Thursday, 610,705 contestants had signed
up, but Saturday's upset of the Univ. of AZ resulted in
every registrant being eliminated. Sandbox.com Dir of
Marketing Mike Sweeney, on having no winners: "We're
depressed." Sweeney, on the players who made it to Saturday
undefeated: "To pick 32 games right is amazing. It's rare
that someone even picks a perfect week of NFL games."
Meanwhile, ESPN.com reported 579,000 users entered its NCAA
tournament contest, and 67 contestants "got every game right
through Friday, although everyone" had a loss by Saturday
(BLOOMBERG, 3/21). Sandbox reported that 56 people had
perfect brackets after the first round (THE DAILY).
SPONSOR VALUE: SportsLine.com reports that sponsorship
revenue for its NCAA men's basketball tournament coverage
exceeds $4M, representing the site's all-time high for a
single event. The site has approximately 35 sponsors,
including Oldsmobile, Agilent, A-B, Conseco, E-Trade, Delta
Faucets, Intel, Isuzu, Nasdaq, Nike and Nortel.
SportsLine.com reported it received 31.5 million page views
on the first day of the tournament, while it received 39
million page views on Friday. Visits for the first and
second rounds totaled 93 million page views. SportsLine
predicts that more than 300,000 unique users will have
entered its "March Mayhem" contests by the end of the
tourney and since March 12, more than 100,000 new members
have joined SportsLine's Rewards program (SportsLine.com).
