The entire market size matters theory is dumb because it's a proxy for something that's easier to measure than the proxy. Additionally, the theories that schools in big cities are better at attracting fans/viewers than schools on farms is clearly wrong, as there isn't even a positive coorelation between a school's local market and its media value.

And the theory that schools in cities have the potential to attract fans quickly because people like rooting for winning schools near them is somewhere between wrong and misleading. It ignores the fact that there's way more competition for fans/eyeballs in big cities than rural areas. The implication of that is two fold:
*I can't quantify this, but people in rural areas see distance differently when it comes to creating emotional bonds. I've seen people in NYC talk about Brooklyn like it's another country. I've also seen people in Syracuse talk about NYC, Buffalo,and Albany like they're the next town over. Do you really think the average college sports fan in Nebraska cares that the U of Nebraska is in Lincoln vs. their town? I doubt it. They care that the Huskers are in Nebraska. Heck, a lot of Nebraska fans are probably just happy the U of Nebraska is near the state of Nebraska.
*Even if big city schools could grab a lot of fans quicker than small town schools, the point is still moot because of the inverse. Their competition can also grab those fans quickly, and there's a lot more competition. Look at Rutgers. They have to compete w/ 11 major sports teams in the NYC are, PLUS a number of college teams, PLUS everything else that NYC has to offer. How often are all 11 of those teams bad at the same time?

In the end, markets overwhelmingly do not matter, which is why there are a ton of city schools getting paid peanuts for media rights, and a ton of glorified cow farms raking in millions. It would be one thing if this was 1895 and telecommunications technology was so primitive that the only game available at a given point in time was the one in walking distance. But that isn't the case anymore. Markets do not matter. Fans matter, and it doesn't make sense to use a local market as a proxy to measure them when there are far more direct methods available.