A bowl with a much larger payout than the NO Bowl will want a name brand team playing. This includes your BCS bowls and high-tier non-BCS bowls. UL is not going to one of these. Too many conference tie-ins for highly rated BCS schools, and hell, there are still 2 teams from Non-AQ conferences that are unbeaten, and some with one loss that have more brand recognition. I don't like it any more than anyone else here does, but itz tr00f.
Of the mid to low tier bowls, the NO Bowl makes sense from a logistical standpoint. Why travel to Nevada or Boise or whatever to play in the Godknowswhere.com Bowl when it benefits the program just as much to play in NO and collect the same, if not more, of a payout?