It’s been a funny sort of playoffs, that’s for sure.

Until the Steelers sat up and realized what it means to be a home team on Sunday, it looked as if we’d see nothing but upsets going into Championship weekend. The NFL loves to tout parity as one of the league’s high points but the problem with parity is how easily great regular seasons can be undone (read: Tennessee, Indianapolis, and New York) by a single game.

The matchups look particularly poor on paper going into this weekend, but those results could also spell disaster for the Super Bowl in terms of ratings. The word most associated with the Super Bowl in terms of ratings and one I’ve seen a couple times today is “bulletproof.” But that will come under close scrutiny going into the big day, especially given the economy.

The divisional round ratings were bad enough (the worst in four years), but without a real marquee matchup this round (and most of the “elite” teams bounced from the playoffs already), it’s going to get worse before it gets better for the NFL.

The ratings were always going to go down with all the buzz surrounding last year’s playoff runs by the Patriots and the big-market Giants (not to mention Brett Favre’s last year as a Packer) no longer in the mix, but this is unexpected, to say the least.

The four teams left–The Arizona Cardinals, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Baltimore Ravens, and the Pittsburgh Steelers–don’t exactly provide a ton of drama or the built-in ratings base of franchises with more national appeal like the Giants and Patriots who have built up large fanbases around the country by winning recently. The style of football to be played also could lend to a pretty boring slate of games with the Steelers, Ravens, and Eagles all being built primarily on defense.

The only economic concern is going to be over Super Bowl ad sales, which are all mostly sold out. According to Sports Business Journal, 90 percent of the 30 second ads for the Super Bowl, which run for $3 million apiece, are sold out, as well as most of the championship game ads.

Most of those ads were likely sold before this weekend’s results, and I’m sure those who bought them are hardly thrilled with the prospect of an Arizona/Baltimore Super Bowl. If anything, the ads for next year could see the most significant impact, especially if the economy doesn’t improve much and the Super Bowl’s ratings do the unthinkable and actually slump.

The Super Bowl is still the marquee advertising event of the year for television, and I doubt you’ll see the price go down next year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some companies hold off on purchasing the ads until they see who is playing in the big game next year.

I know I would.