Some, of us, view bowl games as mostly exhibitions, or something close to that. Today, outside the playoff, they are becoming more akin to that for obvious reasons. It harkens back to when polls were pre bowl and not post bowl and some NCs were won despite a bowl loss.
Teams often are playing short handed, usually the top level teams who have potential first round draft choices. I suspect the minor bowls are still played closer to being "regular games". A 8-4 team would rather be 9-4 than 8-5 (duh), so they all play hard. The NY6 bowl games could see more "upsets" than usual because of this.
Of course, your bowl opponent is likely to be one of the 3 or so best teams you've faced all year, even if they are dogs. Arguably for UGA, you might think Florida, Auburn, ND, and LSU are "better" than Baylor, perhaps, but Baylor is "up there in the mix" I think. They played OU close twice, and had them down bad once. I think Baylor is "misunderestimated" due to helmet, and they may well beat UGA, who is down five starters on offense already.
