Turner/CBS Strike Deal With Microsoft's Bing To Become NCAA's 18th Corporate Sponsor

Microsoft’s web search engine, Bing, has struck a multiyear agreement with CBS and Turner Sports to be an NCAA corporate partner. The deal will go into effect with the start of the men's basketball tournament next week. CBS and Turner own the NCAA’s marketing rights and sell sponsorships, which can range from the high seven figures to low eight figures at the partner level, depending on the deal. Bing will be the NCAA’s 18th sponsor. AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola are corporate champions at the highest level, while Bing joins a list of partners that includes Allstate, Buffalo Wild Wings, GM, Burger King, Enterprise, Infiniti, Kindle Fire (Amazon), Lowe’s, LG, Nabisco, Northwestern Mutual, Reese’s, Unilever and UPS. As part of this partnership, the NCAA has pulled 10 years of raw historical data about teams, tournaments, win loss ratio, home vs. away stats, etc. Microsoft Principal Applied Science Manager Walter Sun will analyze and review the data, and the results will be showcased following Selection Sunday.