Much has been made of the differences in TV contract money between the highest paid (Pac-12 & Big Ten) and the lowest paid (ACC & Big East).  However, people often forget about the big discrepancies in bowl pay-out money.

 While each conference has an automatic BCS bid and a shot at an at-large bid, it's the pay-outs for the rest of the bowl tie-ins that really start to add up, as shown here:

1. S E C      9 bowls   $38,795,000   $3,232,917
2. BigTen    8 bowls   $34,700,000   $2,891,667
3. Big 12     7 bowls   $32,800,000   $3,280,000
4. A C C      9 bowls   $31,680,000   $2,640,000
5. Pac 12    8 bowls   $27,012,500   $2,251,042
6. Big East  6 bowls   $23,925,000    (unknown)

Put another way,

• The SEC bowls pay a total of $4 million more than the Big Ten's (about $300,000 more per team).
• The Big Ten's bowls pay $2 million more than the Big 12's (but with 2 more teams, the B1G actually gets about $400,000 less per team).
• The Big-12 gets $1 million more than the ACC (but with 2 fewer teams, that's $600,000 more per team).
• The ACC totals $4.6 million more than the Pac-12 (about $400,000 more per team).
  
• The Pac-12 bowls pay $3 million more than the Big East's bowls (the Big East only has 8 football teams, but some of that money is also shared with the basketball teams).

(for details, see ACCfootballRx:what-acc-can-do-part-3-bowls)