The NCAA men’s basketball tournament draws plenty of interest, with Yahoo on hand to help out people who may be away from a television during the games.
The first game of the NCAA tournament will feature Mount St. Mary’s and Coppin State — two schools less than 60 miles apart in Maryland, who will travel 500 miles to Dayton, Ohio so one can lose, and one can win and then get killed by UNC.
— user-submitted headline on Fark about the NCAA tournament play-in game
(Trivia question: Coppin State is one of four schools to win an NCAA tournament game as a 15 seed. Name the other three.)
Thanksgiving should be moved to March, so people who normally have Thursday and Friday off in November could have it during the first playoff weekend of the tournament. Seriously, what would you rather see, three football games, one of which would be the Lions getting crushed in the Silverdome, or a whole bunch of basketball games with upsets and nail-biter finishes taking place?
Thought so. Call your Congressman.
For those of you who have to do something remarkably awful on Thursday or Friday, or even tonight during the play-in game, Yahoo Mobile comes to the rescue. Your web-enabled mobile device connected to m.yahoo.com/ncaa hits Yahoo’s dedicated tournament site.
Luxury car manufacturer Jaguar picked up the tab for the promotion, and visitors to Yahoo’s mobile NCAA presence will see links to the Jaguar XF, the company’s newest model.
(Trivia answer: Hampton over Iowa State, 2001. Coppin State over South Carolina in 1997. Santa Clara over Arizona, 1993. Richmond over Syracuse, 1991. Hat tip to Bracket Science. None of the four teams won their next game.)
In looking at the NCAA promotion by Yahoo Mobile, it’s easy to see how it fits in with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s belief that the company’s display ads represent its possibilities for the future.
Jaguar and March Madness are both top brands, attracting a male demographic that advertisers tend to worship. Yahoo’s long-time strength in brand advertising suffered in recent years as automotive and financial advertisers cut back their spending.
For three weeks, Yahoo gets a little of that auto ad money back. Their challenge will be to sustain their brand ad efforts over the next few weeks if they want to have any chance at staving off Microsoft’s takeover bid, one the Redmond-based tech company may see as a fait accompli these days, Yang’s assertions notwithstanding.
