the only thing the lower tier bowls bring is the extra practice time allotted and the nominal value in recruiting. they are money losers for the most part
UConn's model looks to be to have SNY offer up their 4-5 home games and pay them maybe $2M for the rights to see UConn play at home against 1-2 P5 teams, 1-2 G6 teams and an FCS team every year. TBD. I'm not sure how this is going to play out
fox may be helping them schedule to fill in, so likely would have some B12 and B10 teams.
The media who met with AD hinted that the economics of buy-in games has worsened for the P5 teams, as attendance is not 100% for crap teams, enabling UConn to get more home and homes than was originally thought. I suspect BC and Syracuse will be on the schedule every other at some point. But the math could actually work for UConn is they get SNY and get $3-4M by being a patsy buy-in game. Plus, word is that Fox will re-open the Big East contract and perhaps give each school an additional $2M per and extend the contract. That, plus the ability to keep their Tier 3 rights (women's BBall tier 3 rights were worth more to them than the AAC TV contract) makes the deal and $17M payout work economically for UConn over the long run.