I lived in the Santa Barbara area for a while, and even before the Rams pissed off the 14 people who actually liked them by going to St. Louis, that area was way more 49ers territory than Rams territory, despite being geographically much closer to L.A. than to San Francisco. I can't remember what the FOX-station situation was, though. I think the only broadcast station you could get without cable was a Santa Barbara ABC station, but when you had cable, you got a bunch of L.A. stations. I'm guessing the reason folks in the Santa Barbara area will be forced to endure the meaningless final regular-season game between two teams they don't like this weekend is because the FOX coverage on cable around there is from L.A.
ObSeahawks: Until a couple of years ago, the one small positive aspect of being eliminated before the final week of the season would have been that it would mean that Troy Aikman and Joe (dum)B(f)uck couldn't possibly be in the booth for the Seahawks' final regular-season game. With those two idiots ruining MNF, there was no chance of getting them this week whether the Seahawks were eliminated or not.