Cotton Bowl berth worth at least $4 million to USC Trojans and Pac-12

USC and the Pac-12 would have received $6 million for a CFP berth

The USC Trojans received an at-large berth to the Cotton Bowl on Sunday. They will play AAC champion Tulane at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on January 2.

The Cotton Bowl is a New Year's Six bowl game, along with the Peach Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl.

A non-playoff New Year's Six bowl game - like the Cotton Bowl - comes with a significant payout for the teams and conferences involved. Here's a look at the windfall for USC and the Pac-12:

- A conference will receive $4 million for each team that plays in a non-playoff bowl.

- Each conference whose team participates in a playoff semifinal, Cotton, Fiesta, or Peach Bowl, or in the national championship game will receive $2.74 million to cover expenses for each game. 

A College Football Playoff berth would have been worth $6 million for the Pac-12 and USC. 

The Big Ten - the conference USC and UCLA will play in beginning in 2024 - was the biggest beneficiary of the New Year's Six payouts. Ohio State and Michigan made the CFP, and Penn State was given a berth in the Rose Bowl. That's a guaranteed payout of $16 million for the Big Ten.