I made the comment on another thread, that in some ways the lower-tier bowls are more like college football as it once was and arguably should be-- a game to be watched and enjoyed for what happens on the field, between the white lines, between the 60:00 and 00:00 marks on the clock.
The sport has been perverted over the decades into this constant grinding worry about recruiting, or the portal, or perception on the internet, or a dozen other things that have nothing to do with what actually happens between two teams, after kickoff, on the gridiron.
It's meaningful, because it is meaningless.