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.

Were you surprised this morning? The consensus among everyone I spoke with yesterday and this morning was be prepared for a blood bath. After news on Sunday that Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) was being bought out by JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) for a song ($2 per share) and the Federal Reserve Board was cutting the discount rate over the weekend, many were anticipating a 500 to 600 point drop in line with the sell off of about 4.5% in the Hong Kong and Japanese markets.

As of this moment, the DJIA is only down a meager 0.51% or about 61 points. Now that's shocking in a good way. Even at the open it was only down about 1%. Perhaps investors are so numb from yesterday they are to stupified or petrified to act.

Sometimes in a period of uncertainty, a look back can provide some perspective. So here are a few highlights from BloggingStocks on March 16, 2007,a year ago today.

• Business & Sports: Oil, Duke, & Notre Dame -- down: What's bigger news, who's in the March Madness or oil dropping below $57 a barrel?
• Will '300' controversy result in higher ticket sales?: Yeah, because this should be the main source of contention between the U.S. and Iran.
• An OPIC to counter OPEC: An Organization of Petroleum Importing Countries? Whatever became of that?
• Harry Potter and the 12 million order: Will the final movie in the Harry Potter series -- er, make that two movies -- generate this kind of excitment? Will anything?
• The CPI Numbers: Wall Street breathes brief sigh of relief: Wall Street could use another sigh of relief about now.
• Time magazine's facelift: Magazines? Is anyone still reading those?
• Microsoft's Ballmer takes more shots at Google: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has a beef with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Who'd have guessed?
• Heineken -- the next Starbucks?: Does Heineken still want Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) as a role model?
• CNBC: Blackstone prepping for mega IPO: Remember the days when private equity was king?
• The Story You Didn't Read: Digital killed the TV star: TV is going digital? Seems like I heard something about that somewhere recently?
• Subprime investment opportunities?: Investment banks struggling with the subprime mess? The more things change ...
• JetBlue passengers grounded ... again: Last year it was JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) cancellations; this year it's Southwest (NYSE: LUV) cancellations.

March Madness is upon us and the first two big names to depart were Duke and Notre Dame. It was also reported today by the Associated Press that Oil Prices Drop Below $57 Barrel. I'm not sure which is truly bigger news, or more important, but tomorrow oil will be some other price and Duke University and Notre Dame players will be watching the remainder of the tournament on television. While oil prices fluctuate daily so traders and speculators have something to do all the time, the players will have to lick their wounds and think about next year. I think the games were the bigger story.

In business, the 'players' will think about a next year, next quarter, and next month -- but it seems that for traders - everything is in the moment just like the basketball teams! When I read the AP headline above I started thinking about how the story was reported as if it was a sports headline...'OIL DOWN - Fans cheer around the nation'. Then I started thinking about how sport is a business. More headlines... 'Duke and Notre Dame Lose - A cold chill hits the east!' In sympathy the market was down (unrelated) and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) was also down (perhaps in sympathy) and all will rise again - - but without the hype who would pay any attention?

So we all need something to talk about on the front porch, at the water cooler, by the coffee machine, on the bus, down on the farm, and in the White House. Especially in the White House where they are hoping for things to cool off a little. Ahh, but that is sport too. Democrats and Republicans, market bulls and bears, calling each other out at every turn.

Business is a sport and sports is a business and we read each with similar allure -- which do you turn to first?

Disclosure: I am a shareholder of Duke Energy. I am a graduate of USC.

Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

College basketball fans will be able to view highlights and game clips from March Madness they happen----on YouTube. The partnership is sponsored by Pontiac, a division of GM(NYSE:GM), and makes CBS (NYSE:CBS)one of the first companies to actively partner with YouTube in offering content, while Viacom has chosen the litigation route. Which is the right way to go?

In investing there is an old adage that I happen not to agree with but, in this case, it applies: Don't fight the trend. The offering of content on sites like YouTube will, in some form or other, be the wave of the future. In gaining a sponsorship from Pontiac, CBS has found a way to profit from piracy: with or without their consent, clips from March Madness were going to show up on YouTube (although probably not in real-time).

Just as record labels are finding a way to profit from online downloading, producers of television content will need to do the same. Congratulations to CBS for being among the first.