Some media sorts may be moaning that the Carolina Panthers, with no marquee players and just one prior playoff run to their credit, are getting a shot at the Super Bowl over the Philadelphia Eagles, with the far larger base of loyal fans.
   They can quit that moaning. Much more important than who is in the game is whether the game is a competitive match.
  If Sunday's Super Bowl turns out to be a good game, it will pull a large audience regardless of who is playing. If it’s a blowout, it won't matter that much whether it was the Panthers or the Eagles who got in the game.
  The most-watched games of the past 10 years have been those that stayed close until the final minutes: Dallas-Pittsburgh in 1996, Denver-Green Bay in 1998 and St. Louis-Tennessee in 2000.
  All three games were decided by 10 points or less, and all three earned household ratings of 43 and above, despite the lack of two top-market teams.
   This year’s Super Bowl, says former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, will start with a 40 rating. That will go up or down depending on what happens once the players are on the field.
  “The most critical element is the quality of the game,” says Pilson, president of Pilson Communications. “If the game is close and exciting, maybe it goes to a 43 [rating]. If it’s a blowout at halftime or there’s a 30- or 40-point victory margin, it may slip to a 37 or 38 rating.”
   Pilson dismisses another concern, that two defense-oriented teams will put viewers to sleep. A close game is more important than a big-scoring game.
  “If it’s a close game, people will stay with the Super Bowl if it’s 7-7 or 38-38,” he says. “You just don’t want a 38-7 game.”
   Indeed, the 1990 Super Bowl, in which San Francisco throttled Denver 55-10, was the last game to average under a 40 household rating.
  There also has been hand-wringing over the relatively minor status of Carolina’s home market, Charlotte, which ranks 28 in the country (the team the Panthers beat to make the Super Bowl, Philadelphia, ranks fourth).
   CBS Sports president Sean McManus had his defense ready when he spoke to reporters at a press conference this week.
  "The home markets for the Panthers are Charlotte, Raleigh, Greenville and Greensboro," he said. "More people in those markets watched the AFC Championship Game than watched in Boston and Providence combined and who watched in Philadelphia for the NFC Championship Game."
  The four markets McManus mentioned total 3.378 million households. The country’s No. 3 market, Chicago, totals 3.4 million.
   Boston is the country’s sixth-largest market with 2.3 million households but has a rabid following around the rest of the region, too, much like Carolina.
   The Patriots have been to the Super Bowl more than any other team over the past 10 seasons. Their 1997 loss to Green Bay drew a 43.3 rating and 2002’s win over St. Louis averaged a 40.4.
   Last year’s game, won with relative ease by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, averaged a 40.7, a rise of 1 percent over the previous two years.
   Meanwhile, in sports ratings news from last week, the AFC and NFC championship games both did well, with the latter performing especially strong among adults 18-49s. The Panthers-Eagles game was up 6 percent over last year’s Bucs-Eagles audience and up 18 percent among women 18-49.
   Women may also have driven the buzz on ESPN’s coverage of the PGA’s Sony Open. Female participant Michelle Wie helped lift opening-round ratings 29 percent above last year, to a .9 household rating. Second-round coverage, showing Wie almost making the cut, was up 57 percent from last year.