March sadness.

This from the Sports Business Daily:

“CBS is averaging a 5.6 final Nielsen rating through the first eight days of NCAA men?s basketball tournament coverage, down 5.1% from 5.9 last year. CBS? Elite Eight coverage averaged a 6.3, the second lowest ever excluding ?03, which was affected by coverage of the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Sweet Sixteen coverage drew a 6.1 final Nielsen rating, the lowest ever excluding ?03. All key male demos in that round of play were down by at least 7% and the highest rated demo, men over 55, was down 9%.“

Ratings are surprisingly down for this year’s NCAA Tournament. Considering the lack of upsets (usually very good from a ratings standpoint), one would expect the numbers to be up significantly from last year’s relatively low numbers.

No Sweet Sixteen game drew even a 7.0 rating, and one game slipped to a 5.4. Even worse, Georgetown/UNC — a game that had all the ingredients to be one of the highest rated of the past several years — drew a 7.3, down from last year’s 7.8 rating and the lowest rating for an Elite Eight matchup in the late Sunday afternoon timeslot since 2003 (when Texas/Michigan State drew a 6.7).

Florida/Oregon drew the lowest Elite Eight rating of the weekend, drawing a 5.5 and barely edging NASCAR on FOX (which drew a 5.1).

The ratings are still good, but then again ratings for the 2003 NBA Finals were good too — but terrible by league standards. Obviously, ratings are down across the board for all sporting events, but considering the big-name programs participating in this year’s tournament, one would have expected an increase in numbers.

The Final Four might buck the trend of low ratings. Georgetown/Ohio State and Florida/UCLA have the potential to draw big numbers on Saturday night. That being said, Georgetown and Ohio State have been off the radar for several years, meaning that the casual fan who is not completely enamored with Greg Oden or Roy Hibbert might not tune in. And Florida/UCLA drew a disappointing rating last year, when the two schools met in the National Championship Game.