Super Bowl Sunday is not only the day we crown the NFL champion, but the biggest day in marketing, too. CBS has sold out its inventory that fetched roughly $3.8 million for 30 seconds of airtime. An expensive proposition even before you factor in production cost for the creative. Is it worth it? How can companies get the most bang for their huge investment?

Marshall McLuhan's axiom - the medium is the message - has defined how Americans have experienced sports for the past century. Baseball was the sport of the transistor radio; its deliberate pacing made room for conversational story telling of America's pastime. The NFL was made for television - built around Sunday afternoon appointment viewing and breaks in the action for instant replay of big hits of gladiators on the battlefield.

This year's list of first-time Super Bowl advertisers includes Unilever's Axe, Gildan Activewear, SodaStream International, Wonderful Pistachios (Paramount Farms), AMC's "The Walking Dead" and two brands that could have upped the recognition factor among viewers even more by joining forces: Oreo cookies and the Milk Processor Education Program.

We are in the best month of the year for sports. The NFL Playoffs are in full bloom, the NBA is heating up, college football's elite have squared off in the big bowl games, and soccer's international awards have been handed out.

It's the morning after the BCS Championship game, and if you are like me and soon to shake off the grogginess from last night's festivities, you may be in need of a pick-me-up. With the passing of bowl season (congratulate me; I achieved my goal of watching at least one series of each of the 35 games), I'm left with the painful reality that another year will pass without a Super Bowl for my Tennessee Titans and the fact that there's the better part of two months that we will have to wait until March Madness and the onset of …

The great year in sports, 2012, provided another year of progression in the sports business. In a society filled with DVRs and instant satisfaction, sports continue to thrive as the leading live and shared means of entertainment (especially with the rise of the second screen).