[Austroturf]

As for the bowl payouts, aren't those averaged and paid out to all conference teams, per Pac-12 policy?

Yes, they are.  The conference takes the money and distributes to all members, so the pay-out per bowl does not really matter.  All the bowls with Pac-12 tie-in (excluding the Rose Bowl) range in payout from 3.8M (Alamo) to a bit over 2M (Sun, Holiday, Las Vegas).  The Cheez-it has increased their pay-out to a bit over 3.0M.  Of course, the Rose Bowl is a completely separate world (35M), but that also goes to the conference and gets shared among the members.

It should also be noted that the Sun Bowl had to take us: once the Alamo, Holiday and Redbox have picked, the final three bowls (Sun, Vegas, Phoenix) have to pick in order, which was Stanford, ASU, Cal.  There is no wiggle-room here.  And the Cheez-it was stuck with Cal whether they wanted the Bears or not.  

For better bowls in the future, we just have to win more games and eliminate the discussion.  Our 6-3 conference record put us in a pool of teams that were all within one win of each other (Utah 6-3, Stanford 6-3, Oregon 5-4, ASU 5-4), and that gives the choice to the bowl committees.  The Alamo Bowl wanted WSU and Air-Minshew, the Holiday Bowl wanted Utah and the Redbox wanted Oregon (when we played in the Foster Farms bowl back in 2014, we did not exactly light up the attendance numbers, which the bowl organizers were hoping for).  So the Sun Bowl was (once again) our destiny.  Not a lot to grouse about.  We should have beaten UW and WSU and gone to the Rose Bowl.  But, well, that didn't happen.

[Austroturf]

As for the bowl payouts, aren't those averaged and paid out to all conference teams, per Pac-12 policy?

Yes, they are.  The conference takes the money and distributes to all members, so the pay-out per bowl does not really matter.  All the bowls with Pac-12 tie-in (excluding the Rose Bowl) range in payout from 3.8M (Alamo) to a bit over 2M (Sun, Holiday, Las Vegas).  The Cheez-it has increased their pay-out to a bit over 3.0M.  Of course, the Rose Bowl is a completely separate world (35M), but that also goes to the conference and gets shared among the members.

It should also be noted that the Sun Bowl had to take us: once the Alamo, Holiday and Redbox have picked, the final three bowls (Sun, Vegas, Phoenix) have to pick in order, which was Stanford, ASU, Cal.  There is no wiggle-room here.  And the Cheez-it was stuck with Cal whether they wanted the Bears or not.  

For better bowls in the future, we just have to win more games and eliminate the discussion.  Our 6-3 conference record put us in a pool of teams that were all within one win of each other (Utah 6-3, Stanford 6-3, Oregon 5-4, ASU 5-4), and that gives the choice to the bowl committees.  The Alamo Bowl wanted WSU and Air-Minshew, the Holiday Bowl wanted Utah and the Redbox wanted Oregon (when we played in the Foster Farms bowl back in 2014, we did not exactly light up the attendance numbers, which the bowl organizers were hoping for).  So the Sun Bowl was (once again) our destiny.  Not a lot to grouse about.  We should have beaten UW and WSU and gone to the Rose Bowl.  But, well, that didn't happen.