The ACC is in many of the biggest media markets in the country, while the SEC is scattered across a bunch of small media markets. It has nothing to do with media markets. It's about the number of people who tune in to watch football, which is about the size of the alumni base, the passion of the fans, the ability of a team to capture national attention from fans without a rooting interest, and the quality of the football team. Our problem is that UNC football doesn't get eyeballs outside of our own fans, our program doesn't compete for titles, it doesn't regularly play teams who are competing for titles, and our alumni base is small compared to a lot of other state schools.
John Swofford's main error was thinking that it was about media markets.