If it were not profitable they would not do it. If you doubt this check the list of bowls that have closed.
The fact is if someone is willing to sponsor a bowl game and teams want to play the game, a tv network wants to broadcast it and people want to watch it, why does it bother the sportswriters, the Senate, or the President-elect.
Please do not tell me about football purity or any other abstract absurdity.
Some sports do it by playoff, others do not.
How pure is the playoff when teams are eliminated by their conference finish anyway? Does anybody really believe that the third best b-ball team in the ACC is worse than the #1 in the Metro Atlantic Conference which gets an automatice bid?
The only good thing about the tournament is that it gives a chance to an outsider. However, how often has that happened if at all.
Some sports do it by playoff, others do not.
Name one college sport (or for that manner, any type of professional sport) that does not have a playoff tournament to determine its champion.