I can see football schedules being set up so that Cali schools mostly play teams like Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois...etc. and the eastern schools like Rutgers, Maryland, PSU mostly play teams teams they are closer to. Maybe it's set up in a quasi east/west division.
However, this becomes more difficult with sports like volleyball and basketball where they play way more games and will play all the teams in the conference. But, those athletes are used to missing more school.
That said, a direct flight from LA to Philly is 5 hours 18 minutes. (per expedia) This isn't like they would be on a 12 hour flight.