CBS FALLS MADLY IN LOVE WITH TOURNAMENT.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

In television terms, March Madness is $1.725 billion.

That's how much CBS bestowed upon the NCAA about a year and a half ago to get a commitment through 2002 for exclusive coverage of the month-long men's college basketball postseason tourney.

It's the biggest check written in sports TV history.

Len DeLuca, CBS Sports vice president of programming, knows that while the dollar amount may be staggering, it makes perfect sense to network accountants.

"The tournament is one of the great success stories in terms of continued growth, advertiser loyalty and fervor," said DeLuca.

"This is our foundation, something we identified in the early '80s as a huge target, and we've grown with it.

"Some have a problem with the magnitude of 1.725 billion - it's so gargantuan - but here's another big number: 70 hours. That's how much of the tournament we have from March 10 to April 1.

"As the rights fees grow, so do the amount of hours and available (commercial) units. Thus far, there continues to be a growth and demand."

CBS, which has had the tournament rights since 1982 when it was 48 teams strong, clings to this property like a starfish to a rock, especially with the bashing it has taken for losing rights to the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball within a five-year period.

The tournament is considered to be one of the three biggest prizes in TV sports, along with the Olympics and Super Bowl.

Since taking over the entire 63-game tournament in 1991 (ESPN had done the first round in years previous), CBS has more than doubled its amount of game coverage over what it had done in '82.

Yet the tournament has maintained a solid, steady rating, averaging 8.5, going up for the Final Four (13.9) and title game (21.0) over the past five years.

This, at a time when regular-season college hoop ratings continue to dip, and many complain about the overexposure of the sport.

The media research firm of Paul Kagan Associates reports that some 3,854 college basketball telecasts were made available this season on network, cable, regional cable, syndication and satellite dish TV from late November to early March.

CBS, which pays $12 million a season in addition to regular-season coverage, has seen its pre-tournament ratings slide from 3.7 in 1991-92 to 2.4 last season.

What the ratings don't accurately portray, however, is that the volume of viewers continues to increase, albeit spread out to suit their particular tastes.

With ratings fragmented during the regular season, there's only one place where viewers are funneled for college tournament time in March - CBS.

"The bad news (about the regular season) is there are so many games," said DeLuca. "The good news is all of those games vicariously promote our product.

"In a five-year time frame ('91-'95), it's a product that wins its time periods and is dominant every March."

DeLuca also pointed out that a 13 percent dip in overall tournament ratings between '95 and '94 was due in part to Michael Jordan's NBA comeback in games that went up against tournament games.

TV's influence over the college game has drawn criticism. DeLuca and CBS Sports President David Kenin recently were named the most powerful people in college sports by College Sports Today magazine because of their ultimate decision on what games get on TV and which program and players get the most exposure.

And the NCAA gets about 90 percent of its operating budget now from NCAA Tournament fees (college football and its bowl games generate about four percent). The NCAA makes about $150 million in TV revenue alone this time of year - the tournament generates about $115 million on its own.

So the power shift has been very abrupt. Thirty-odd years ago, NCAA executive director Walter Byers sold the tournament TV rights one game at a time - a top rate of $550 an hour from stations in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, that were grateful to get an Oscar Robertson/University of Cincinnati or John Havlicek/Ohio State game to show.

"It's just become a great national event," said CBS' Pat O'Brien, the tournament studio host. "There's no argument about the Super Bowl being the greatest one-day event, but you'd be crazy to say that this isn't a premier event. It's something that gets every office pool in the country working, and for this network to be in the center of it, we just hope to put the exclamation point on it."

Even Billy Packer, in his 22nd season of doing college basketball analysis, acknowledges that through the tournament's growth, CBS has kept up.

"Through television, this tournament has captured the imagination of the country," said Packer.

"The increased commitment by CBS in the early '80s has made the tournament the No. 1 sports championship in the country."

And definitely the No. 1 priority at CBS Sports.

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