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If I weren't camping that week, I'd probably head down to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl.

It's not a bad destination, San Antonio's a pretty good bowl hosting site, truthfully.

If I weren't camping that week, I'd probably head down to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl.

It's not a bad destination, San Antonio's a pretty good bowl hosting site, truthfully.

Here's a site that says that the Alamo Bowl messed up the Big 12's bowl picture by picking Texas instead of letting the Horns slide to the Camping World Bowl. 

https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2019/12/08/ranking-the-2019-20-big-12-bowl-games/

hah, the Alamo may have "messed up" the next bowl in the picking order's chance to make a pile of money

Not sure what you mean by "messed up?"  As far as I know, outside of the CFP and Sugar Bowl, all the other B12-affiliated bowls are allowed to pick whomever they want. 

Their sole goal is to fill their stadium, and I suppose the Alamo Bowl reps felt that Texas would do that better than any other B12 team still available after the CFP and Sugar made their picks.

If you read the linked article, it should have answered that question.
The article asserts among other things that Texas fans would have preferred traveling to Orlando for the Camping World Bowl rather than to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl.  I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what it says.
It also asserts that Texas-Notre Dame would have been a much bigger, better game than Texas-Utah, because with the latter you get a team coming off a hugely disappointing loss and falling from a potential CFP slot to the Alamo Bowl. (Which is really on the Pac-12, as it has not negotiated any automatic participation in any bowl between the Alamo and the Rose.)  And because Texas-Notre Dame is a sexier matchup just from a helmet status if nothing else.

And it asserts that Iowa State-Utah would be a better game than Texas-Utah for reasons that are somewhat fuzzy in my recollection.

FTR, The Alamo Bowl has 1st pick of the Big 12 (and of the Pac-12) after the CPP/NY6 teams are taken.  The Camping World Bowl is next to pick from the Big 12, followed in order by the Texas Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, the Cheez-It Bowl, and the First Responder Bowl.

If not, it might impact future negotiations.

I ask this because I don't know.  Does the attractiveness of the matchup affect TV revenue for a bowl game, or is that negotiated far in advance?

If not, it might impact future negotiations.

The bowl promoters don't give a rat's ass about the TV ratings.  They get their money from the sponsors, ticket sales, stadium ad revenue and promotions, concessions, etc.  The TV revenue for the bowl games are negotiated with the conferences-- as a package-- well in advance.  Since ESPN owns almost all of the bowls now, it's really just a portfolio investment for them.  Some games will be winners, some will be losers, and overall they're making the bet they're going to come out on top.  They keep investing so I suppose it's working for them.

well, a few Horn fans with kids might want to fly to an amusement park

the HUGE majority would rather make the short drive to San Antonio

Absolutely.  I don't personally know a single Longhorn fan in Austin, Dallas, or Houston, that would spend the money to travel to Orlando to watch an immensely disappointing 7-5 Texas team play football.  Not even against Notre Dame.  But plenty of them would go to San Antonio.

Not just that, but outside of CFP and NY6 type bowls, the majority of attendance for most bowls comes from locals.  There are TONS of Longhorn "t-shirt fans" in San Antonio that would never bother to come to Austin for a game, but will be delighted to go see a game in their home city.  We've seen that play out every time we've been in the Alamo Bowl-- lots and lots of San Antonio locals that didn't necessarily graduate from UT but still root for the Longhorns.  That's maybe not the best thing for the local hotels and restaurants since many day-trip in (like I have twice), but the Alamo Bowl promoters are not really concerned with that-- they're worried about gate receipts, concessions, etc.

guy writing the article was obviously just trying to stir the pot!

Takes one to know one, doesn't it?