[Austroturf]

For heaven's sake, Cal is going to Phoenix with a crappier record, and the payout for the Cheez-It Bowl is nearly $1 million higher than the Sun Bowl!  

Others have noted that the pay out for the particular bowl a Pac 12 team goes to doesn't really matter.
I cannot find confirmation of the $1+ million higher number.
There is a note in this thread that the Cheez-It bowl increased its payout to $3+ million. That was reported with some confidence so I suspect it's correct. What I can find in a quick web search is a lower number.
Cheez-it $1,037,118
Sun       $3,447,568
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/bowl-schedule/2018/

I pulled the US$ 3.35M figure for the Cheez it Bowl straight out of Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheez-It_Bowl

the footnote for the $3.35m is from 2015 so might not be current.

2018 Cheez-It Bowl payout is $1,037,500.  Also from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Cheez-It_Bowl

2018 Sun Bowl payout is $3,448,000.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Sun_Bowl

OK, then they seem to have reduced, not increased their pay-out.  Bad Wikipedia management by the Cheez-it (Cactus) Bowl.  No sense in having two pages to confuse the public.  The one I cited is the "generic" Cheez-it Bowl article.  The one cited by Mick is specific to 2018.  And that's the one that matters this year.

[Austroturf]

For heaven's sake, Cal is going to Phoenix with a crappier record, and the payout for the Cheez-It Bowl is nearly $1 million higher than the Sun Bowl!  

Others have noted that the pay out for the particular bowl a Pac 12 team goes to doesn't really matter.
I cannot find confirmation of the $1+ million higher number.
There is a note in this thread that the Cheez-It bowl increased its payout to $3+ million. That was reported with some confidence so I suspect it's correct. What I can find in a quick web search is a lower number.
Cheez-it $1,037,118
Sun       $3,447,568
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/bowl-schedule/2018/

I pulled the US$ 3.35M figure for the Cheez it Bowl straight out of Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheez-It_Bowl

the footnote for the $3.35m is from 2015 so might not be current.

2018 Cheez-It Bowl payout is $1,037,500.  Also from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Cheez-It_Bowl

2018 Sun Bowl payout is $3,448,000.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Sun_Bowl

OK, then they seem to have reduced, not increased their pay-out.  Bad Wikipedia management by the Cheez-it (Cactus) Bowl.  No sense in having two pages to confuse the public.  The one I cited is the "generic" Cheez-it Bowl article.  The one cited by Mick is specific to 2018.  And that's the one that matters this year.