Playing Missouri in KC in November is more interesting than the majority of bowl games we ever land even in the MWC.
What does a win in a bowl game mean? Nothing more than a win over Nebraska, or a win over Michigan (had we secured it, obv that didn't end well), or next year a win over West Virginia or Miss St or Mich St or Arizona, etc.
No one remembers more than 3-4 bowl games out of the 30+ a year later, so why the over-emphasis on post season? To me I want the most interesting regular season possible.
And not playing for a conf title does dampen that, b/c it makes the games against weak teams completely irrelevant/boring. But the solid P5 or other interesting matchups (like E Carolina this Sat) make for a better regular season overall than MWC play.