Yes, college football is insanely popular. I live in a county of 200k people that has absolutely no trouble filling up a stadium of 90k people for home games. The skyboxes sell in the millions, and the best seats in the stands require a 10k/year donation for the right to purchase them. TV deals are also very lucrative, and I would assume so is merchandise.
I don't think UF is really very different than a lot of the other major football schools. Most of them are in pretty moderately sized cities, especially in comparison to cities with professional teams. Green Bay is the only NFL city that's college town sized.
I remember when pg wrote his essay about what messages cities send, the only message I could I think of that Gainesville sends to me is something along the lines of "You should watch gator football." It was a harsh realization, because I do like it here, and now I really wonder if this the right place for me.
