It's obvious a lot of the bowl games are in the southeast, which is SEC's backyard. In this post I figured the distance for each team that qualified for bowl games. Big 10- 7 SEC- 10.
SEC:
South Carolina- Columbia, SC -----> Orlando, FL 430 miles, 6 hours
LSU- Baton Rouge, LA -----> Tampa, FL 712 miles, 10 hours
Texas A&M- College Station, TX -----> Atlanta, GA 825 miles, 12 hours
Georiga- Athens, GA -----> Jacksonville, FL 340 miles, 5.5 hours
Mississippi State- Starkville, MS -----> Memphis, TN 182 miles, 2.8 hours
Ole Miss- Oxford, MS -----> Nashville, TN 231 miles, 3.4 hours
Missouri- Columbia, MO -----> Arlington, TX 600 miles, 9 hours
Vanderbilt- Nashville, TN -----> Birmingham, AL 192 miles, 2.8 hours
Alabama- Tuscaloosa, AL -----> New Orleans, LA 292 miles, 4 hours
Auburn- Auburn, AL -----> Pasadena, CA 2137 miles, 30 hours
Average Distanced Traveled- 594 miles
Now, factoring out BCS bowl games, because fans will travel no matter what- 439 miles
Big 10:
Michigan State- East Lansing, MI -----> Pasadena, CA 2212 miles, 31 hours
Wisconsin- Madison, WI -----> Orlando, FL 1304 miles, 19 hours
Iowa- Iowa City, IA ------> Tampa, FL 1269 miles, 18.5 hours
Nebraska- Lincoln, NE -----> Jacksonville, FL 1338 miles, 19.5 hours
Michigan- Ann Arbor, MI -----> Tempe, AZ 1957 miles, 29 hours
Minnesota- Minneapolis, MN -----> Houston, TX 1177 miles, 17 hours
Ohio State- Columbus, OH -----> Miami, FL 1152, 17 hours
Average Distance Traveled- 1487 miles
Without BCS bowls- 1409 miles
Final thoughts:
Obviously you can't change geography, and the Big 10 is at a disadvantage when it comes to bowl traveling. The SEC, in my opinion, have a HUGE advantage when it comes to bowl selection. Some of the stadiums that the bowls are played in, some of the teams have played in before.. Georgia v Florida game is played in Jacksonville... Chick-Fil-A bowl, Georgia Dome. The average fan isn't going to fly, or drive cross country to watch a bowl game. But, if the game was an average of 439 miles away, and tickets running 30$, who wouldn't? If only bowl games weren't in Indy, Chicago, etc. That's my 2 cents.