This has far less to do with the NC$$ and ESPN having control of the bowl games, though the FOX Netowrk has controlled the BCS Bowl games for the last four years (the good ones from back in the day and this particular game), than it does the fact that UConn is a basketball school from with a decent football team in a bad conference that was guaranteed a BCS birth.
They would not continue to create new bowl games (added TicketCity Bowl and Pinstripe Bowl in 2010) if they weren't making money.
They were selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl got Oklahoma because they get the winner of the Big 12 every year, providing that they aren't #1 or #2 and playing in the title game. The Fiesta bowl this year got the last pick of the at-large picks. They were stuck with Connecticut, as they won the final BCS Conference.
Connecticut fans had to travel to Arizona to watch their team play while being a 17 point underdog. That is quite a long way to go to watch their team get destroyed. Its like Mich Tech fans coming to UND. They sold 2,000 tickets while they averaged more than 35,000 tickets at home this season.
The night before, their men's basketball team was also playing their first home conference game the night before. If UND was playing in the Independence Bowl how many people would go to that instead of a home hockey game agains Mankato?
The attendance at the game was 67,232 (93% capacity). Of the 35 games, 9 were sellouts. 6 were less than 2/3 capacity.
In the end, they need to examine their collective bargaining agreement with their conference. The Big East got in the neighborhood of $18 million for the appearance.