Tuesday Yakking -- The NFL is, roughly, a zillion times more popular than baseball

Item: Sunday's Super Bowl was the most-watched telecast in the U.S. ... Ever.

It supplanted the 1983 series-finale of "M*A*S*H."

The deciding sixth game of last year's World Series, featuring the New York Yankees, drew 22 million viewers on Fox. This year's Super Bowl? 106 million.

Let the poets and romantics sing the praises of their beloved baseball. But that's so 50 years ago. I hear Minnesota Twins fans getting all excited about making another run at an American League Central title. Goody. Uh ... Yankees, money, Red Sox, money, Yankees, money ...

Nothing done by any sport, including college football, begins to capture America's soul like Super Bowl Sunday, not to mention any old NFL Sunday or Monday.

Fifteen of the 16 most-watched cable shows in 2009 were NFL telecasts on ESPN. That covers every single thing on cable, from Jon & Kate to "Jersey Shore."

Item: The NFL, however, isn't perfect. We know this because the NFL Network reportedly is trying to lure Chris Berman away from ESPN.

As someone who doesn't get the NFL Network into his home, I say throw everything you can to get

 Berman, NFL. Which would remove him from ESPN, and from ever accidentally appearing on my screen as I channel-surf.

I do not pay for cable to have someone screaming at me, which is what Berman does. Between his idiotic "back, back, back, back" calls to his "He could ... go ... all ... the ... way" shtick for football (stolen from the late Howard Cosell, by the way), he's both loud and tired at the same time.

Item: Northern Iowa is projected as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament by ESPN.com and a No. 8 by CBSsports.com. Click on the links for their bracket racket.

My advice to the Panthers: Keep winning. Stay away from an 8-seed. A 6 is better in more ways than one.

No. 8 seeds almost never get to the Sweet 16, because they a) play a No. 9 seed in the first round and if they win they b) get a No. 1 seed next.

Last year, No. 6 seeds won three of their four first-round games against 11th-seedsd. Oddly, No. 5 seeds lost three of their four games against 12th-seeds.

Two years ago, Drake was a No. 5 and lost in overtime to 12-seed Western Kentucky.

For even better advice, win, win, win, Panthers, and go for a 4-seed or a 3.

If UNI gets a split this week with road games against Drake and Bradley, though, it's not a bad week.

By the way, the only team seeded higher than 14th that won an NCAA game in the 2000s was No. 15 Hampton, which beat Iowa State in 2001.

The only two 14-seeds that won were Bucknell over Kansas in 2005 and Northwestern State over Iowa in 2006.

There you have it. Of the three biggest upsets in a decade of NCAA games, two of the victims were Iowa State and Iowa.

Item: It's being suggested that global warming is hurting the future of the Winter Olympics.

This Orange County Register story says so.

My thought: Global warming may not be as horrible as previously believed.