People nowadays keep saying they hate bowl games because they don't mean anything. I'm sorry to break it to you, but they've never "meant anything". They've always been rewards for teams that had a decent season and a byproduct of advertisers and media companies wanting to get a little extra cash. That's no different today than it was in 1980. The only thing that has changed in that regard is people are often times taking out their frustration of all the changes in the sport and applying it towards anything possible.
Now, I will admit that the so-called "prestige" of winning one of the big bowls may not seem as important or it gets frustrating to see players starting to sit out those games. But tell the ISU fans, coaches, and players of a couple years ago that the Fiesta Bowl win was meaningless. In many ways, it was - just like it was in 1990. But it demonstrated a new milestone for our program and none of us would give it away.
I will never stop watching them because any college football is better than no football.