We benefit from a prestigious Big 10 Conference. If the conference does well in bowl games, it raises the conference's prestige. If the conference does poorly in bowl games, the prestige lowers. If it is good for Big Ten teams to lose bowl games this year, is there something special about this year, or it is true for all years? If the Big Ten Conference continued to do badly in bowl games on a regular basis, the conference's prestige could fall behind that of some of the other conferences nipping at our heels. That would not be good for the Gophers.
It may be satisfying to see the Badgers lose, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the same thing as being in the interests of the Gophers.
