It also might come as a shock to you that I know that SEC stands for Southeastern Conference. According to 1999 US Census estimates, the 9 states having SEC teams have a population of 50.287 million and the 4 states having PAC10 teams have a population of 46.995 million. So, that's almost a wash. But now add in the fact that approximately 40 milllion of the potential PAC10 audience is in the pacific time zone. Contrast that with about half of the SEC potential audience in the eastern time zone and the other half in the central time zone. Networks are loathe to carry a football game in prime time in another region of the country. And, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the PAC10 population is spread over a much larger geographical area so that the attraction of a particular PAC10 game tends to be limited to the market of the schools playing in that game.
Thanx for the population comparison. I was too lazy to check it. Still, your original post suggested the SEC gets viewers from the NE and Midwest. That's pretty much exactly my point - quality football gets viewers from everywhere - or I should say that is the TV execs impression, and their jobs depend on it. If you're saying PAC10 officials won't change game times to accomodate TV, well, you'll have to take that up with them. I also said the SEC has to compete with the ACC (only a little), the Big East (a tad), and the Big Ten (in regional coverage). What does the PAC10 compete with in their time zones - virtually nothing.
Your prime time statement is ten years out of date. I've been to Gainesville for two 8:00 games in three years for national games. Then there's ESPN.
I checked the square mile question. The two areas are almost exactly the same - much closer than the population figures.