“In 2020, ESPN Events will own 16 of the 43 FBS bowl games:

Boston, Cure, Myrtle Beach, Frisco, Hawaii, Texas, Gasparilla, Las Vegas, Armed Forces, New Mexico, First Responder, Bahamas, Boca Raton, Camellia, Birmingham, Famous Idaho Potato”

It’s a remarkable racket - They force the conferences and schools to buy thousands of tickets, the majority of which they will never sell, forcing them to eat the loss. Then ESPN rakes in the advertising dollars with live mid-week afternoon programming.

Why would anyone want to go to a bowl game in Boston.

Pretty easy to come by. I wasn't able to make it to the Fiesta Bowl for our last national championship (somewhat foolishly in hindsight, I figured there would be others in the near future), and I lived in Jacksonville at the time. I wound up going to the Gator Bowl instead, in what was Vince Dooley's last game as Georgia head coach (vs. Michigan State). Fun fact for that game: New Year's Day fell on a Sunday that year, and the Gator Bowl was the only bowl game to play on Sunday.

Anyway, a bunch of us walked right up to the gate and got tickets for the game. Tickets cost $10 IIRC (it was over 30 years ago, after all).

Unfortunately, the advantage to a program to have additional days of practice makes it more difficult to say no if invited to a bowl game.

There is also some benefit with regards to recruiting and alumni relations I would think.

Whether or not the above is valued above the cost of attending is a good question. I would hazard a guess that ADs and other folks making the decision just care about enjoying the boondoggles while they spend their schools' money

I think most, if not all conferences have it in their bylaws that if offered, schools have to go.

A 5-7 team can decline a bowl bid if one is offered. I believe Missouri did so a few years back. This year no 5-7 teams went to bowl games, but starting in 2020 there almost certainly will be some, unless some existing bowls fold.

One further advantage to a bowl game (for a Group of Five school, at least) is the opportunity to appear on national TV on a network with broader range than CBSSN or FS1, and also with less TV competition involving Power 5 programs.