Ah yes ladies and gents, it is what some will call the most wonderful time of the year ... March Madness brought to you by CBS brought to you by Coca-Cola's(NYSE:KO) PowerAde brought to you by General Motors (NYSE:GM) brought to you by New Balance brought to you by AT & T's Cingular(NYSE:T) -- perhaps you catch my drift.

Yesterday was the first time I was home for the opening day of the tournament in five years. Know how many games I watched? Zero. Now how much of it I missed? Zero. Maybe it is because my Cincinnati Bearcats choked royally down the stretch and were left out of the NCAA and NIT, or maybe it is because I find college basketball a bit boring. Whatever the reason, I didn't watch and I didn't miss. Actually, let me couch that statement, I saw snippets of the Butler/LSU game as I waited for the FightBus to get its oil change at the dealership. Thing is, while I was glancing at the TV I saw in-game ads for VitaminWater and General Motors ... what happened to letting the game play? It reminded me of Wednesday night when I was watching my BlueJackets play. Fox Sports was showing the sponsored save of the game, and missed a goal by the Jackets!

The recession hasn't squashed the spirit of college athletes, it likely won't slow down the creation of office "bracket" pools, and it hasn't stemmed the tide of online ad revenue flowing into CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), which is nearing the end of its 11-year pact with the NCAA for March Madness broadcast rights. (The deal expires in 2013).

A week before the NCAA Tournament begins, CBS has already sold nearly all of its online ad inventory, according to The Wall Street Journal. Just 35 companies -- including Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) -- have bucked up for these streaming ads.

While its auditors are busy expressing doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) announced that it will not be using its company suites at the NCAA's Final Four basketball event. The seats are part of the sponsorship package, but GM is now talking with the NCAA about what to do with the suites.

This is a relatively small example of the kind of wasteful spending that GM engaged in, with private jets and excessive executive compensation being better examples.

This post is one of several on business heirs apparent. Let us know in the comments whether you think Jeffrey Jordan live up to the legacy of his father, and be sure to check out the other heir apparent posts.

By Mike Brewster, guest blogger.

Since legendary hoopster Michael Jordan retired for good in 2003, none of the "next Michael Jordans"-- from Tracy McGrady to Jerry Stackhouse to Vince Carter -- have come close to matching Jordan's gaudy stats, six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls, or impact on the game (not to mention his poker losses, but that's another story). Perhaps we have to look closer to home to find the real heir to Air Jordan?

Son Jeff Jordan is a freshman at the University of Illinois, and the first thing that strikes you about the younger Jordan is that he earned an academic scholarship to Illinois, certainly impressive but not exactly predictive of a Hall of Fame NBA career. Jeff's stats -- he's averaging five minutes and under one point per game this season for one of the worst Illinois squads in memory -- suggest that he might have been better off playing at one of the schools where he was offered a basketball scholarship, such as Loyola University of Chicago or Valparaiso.