Head-to-head bowl records mean little when teams aren't slotted according to what they did on the field.
I agree to some extent, and I am on-record in some other threads ranting about the nonsense of that system. However, with all of the garbage out of conference schedules our conference puts together, this is our best chance to show what we can do against top level competition from other conferences. To put it more succintly, its not a perfect barometer for comparing conferences, but its best barometer we have.
I still think the matchups we got provide some fair comparisons of the strength of our conferencse.
Minnesota-Syracuse: .500 B1G team vs. .500 ACC team, should show which conference has the stronger middle of the pack
Michigan-K State: 5-3 Big 12 team vs. 3-5 B1G team, if B1G team with a losing record beats a Big 12 team with a winning record, that's good for us
Nebraska vs. Georgia: 5-3 B1G vs. 5-3 SEC, pretty fair matchup to compare winning teams with the same record in each conference
Wisconsin vs. South Carolina: 6-2 B1G vs. 6-2 SEC, see above
Iowa vs. LSU: 5-3 B1G vs. 5-3 SEC, see both of the above
Stanford vs. Michigan State: our champ vs. the Pac 12's, great matchup
Ohio State vs. Clemson: our runner-up vs. the ACC team with the second best conference record (not the runner-up because they were in the champ's division
Looking at those matchups, I think we have an incredibly fair matchup for comparisons. For the ACC, we get to see our #2 against their #2 and our .500 vs. their .500. Should show us who has the stronger top-end teams and the stronger depth. For the Pac-12, whose best is better? The Big 12 is the one conference we get hosed against, having to watch a losing B1G team take on a winning Big 12 team.
However, the big one is the SEC matchup. We play 3 games against that conferences. All of the teams were winning teams in their respective conference. In fact, all of the matchups feature two teams with the same conference record. I really think that is a great barometer for comparing our two conferences.