I've said it here before. Conference bowl tie ins are stupid.
Variety and match-ups make for good bowl games, and encourage people to attend. When bowls lock in with specific conferences, they are pretty often locking in the same teams year after year, which can lead to fan apathy and poor attendance.
Bowl game selections should be done in such a way that the committees can choose any two teams they like. Order of choice would be by the size of the purse. This would encourage the committees to trim the fat and pay the teams better in order to earn a higher choice, rather than extorting athletic departments by requiring ticket purchases and lining their own pockets. It would virtually guarantee the best two teams on the board at any given time being matched up in a game. And it would probably make half a dozen bowl games seriously consider whether their game is worth the effort, which is definitely a discussion that should be held.
Maybe once the playoff begins to take into account strength of schedule and computer rankings people will become more comfortable with an idea like this. We need more good games in the bowl season, especially if a small handful of games will be deemed the only "relevant" ones (the playoff.)