First, the NFL schedule is not done on what they think will give the best ratings. It is done on a standard rotation and rules that have been in place for a long time. The system is fair to every team in the leaugue. A team plays every team in their division twice.
AFC South division which Colts are in:
Jaguars - 2 games
Texans - 2 games
Titans - 2 games
Next, they play all of the teams in one AFC division and one NFC division and those divisions are on a 4 year rotation. This year, every team in the AFC South plays every team in the AFC West and every team in the NFC West.
AFC West - Broncos, Raiders, Chargers and Chiefs
NFC West - 49ers, Seahawks, Rams and Cardinals
That makes up 14 of their 16 games. The final 2 are decided by where that team placed in their division. Since the Colts placed second, that means they play the two 2nd placed teams in the other AFC divisions since they are in the South and play all of the West teams already. So they play the 2nd place team in the AFC East (the Dolphins) and the 2nd place team in the AFC North (the Bengals).
So Goodell had nothing to do with it. The only thing he really may have control over is when the games happen and whether they are home or away games.
And that schedule isn't the easiest by any means. The AFC West is the toughest division in the NFL right now with two of their teams making the playoffs last year. And the Broncos had the longest winning streak in the NFL last year. And the Bengals also made the playoffs. Not to mention the Colts have to play the Texans twice which were the top ranked team in the AFC for most of the season last year.
I wouldn't necessarily call that easy. Especially when only in the 3rd game of the season they have to go on the road and take on the 49ers.
And as far as the not having to rebuild portion, how do you get off saying that? Last year they lost over 26 veteran players. You could almost count the number of veteran players left on one or two hands. All but 2 people on their coaching staff were fired. The GM's family was all fired, so they had to hire a brand new GM that had not even been a GM before. And the head coach had never been a head coach before. His backup, Arians who was the offensive coordinator, had been fired by the Steelers. And on top of all of that they had $37 million in dead money last year that they were paying to veterans that were let go. What does that mean? It means they had $37 million less than basically any other team in the NFL last year to pay their active roster. That means basically had 70% of the cash of any other team in the NFL to work with last year. Not to mention they were playing with almost an all rookie team and started out playing against some of the top NFL defenses.
If that isn't a major rebuild with some major complications then I don't know what the heck is. The ONLY thing they had going for them was that they had the first pick in the draft. And teams have that have had first picks in the draft typically do FAR worse.
The difference with the Colts was that Irsay was very careful and picked a very good GM, one that is relentless in searching for good talent and that knows how to find good talent and likes players with a lot of drive. They then picked a good head coach that also had a ton of drive. Pagano had those players in practice last year playing with drive in practice like they were playing for the Super Bowl. Another example of that was when they didn't lay down for the Texans when their spot in the playoffs was secure and winning or losing the game didn't affect their playoff position. Instead, they went in there, played hard and beat the Texans, costing the Texans their #1 AFC seed.
It wasn't like their schedule was super easy last year either. They played every team in the NFC North last year. And the NFC North was no pushover. They had to start out against the Bears in Chicago, which had the top ranked defense in NFL several times throughout the season. Then then had to play the Vikings which also had one of the top ranked defenses. Then the Packers which nearly went undefeated in 2011. Then they had to play the Patriots in Foxboro. Not to mention they had to play the #1 team in the AFC, the Texans, twice.
Granted, Luck is very good. But there were a lot of other reasons they Colts did so well. Good GM selection, good coaching staff selections, good player selections, playing with drive and intensity, etc. I think you have a lot that you need to learn about the NFL and the Colts before making such off-the-cuff statements without good info to back it up.