You go back and forth between characterizing the numbers as TV sets and total viewers in your post. Are your numbers Sets or Viewers?
Nielson usually reports numbers in terms of TV sets, which is why I asked what these numbers mean. Is there some kind of extrapolation from TV sets to viewers? And if we are talking about TV sets, and that SEC number is an average of all national games, then I am a bit skeptical, because ESPN generally runs two SEC games head to head on Saturday nights. If that 4.45MM is TV sets, and not viewers, and there are two games running head to head, then the total viewers of ESPN and ESPN 2 on a Saturday night are almost 9MM sets. Since the total population of TV sets per Nielson is just over 100MM, then roughly 9% of the total (TV Set) population of the United States is watching SEC football on ESPN and ESPN 2 on Saturday night. That would be impossible.
IF, on the other hand, your numbers represent total viewers, then why would ESPN bother to broadcast any of this? Those viewer numbers would translate into sub 0.5 ratings, which usually equals cancellation.
What I suspect is those numbers represent TV sets on the major broadcast networks. Since the SEC is broadcast without competition on CBS, 4.45MM sets seems almost reasonable. Most of the ABC games are regional, and ABC essentially decides how many sets there are for a particular game. But I am just a lay person, so WTF do I know? The funny thing is, you are a self-professed expert, and you don't know either.
The fact that you don't understand how Nielson reports numbers really brings your credibility into question. I actually like your insights, even when I don't agree with you, but your tendency to try to bully anyone who disagrees with you with "I am the expert and you are not" is weak, especially when there are some serious holes in your analysis, and you are struggling to interpret the basic data so we can even understand the basis for the debate.
As I have said before, either your argument stands on its own, or it doesn't. Nothing says "fake" quite like resorting to your "insider" status whenever someone challenges you. When I post about something I am an expert in, I don't have to say "I am an expert" every other paragraph. People just know.