Is it really lucrative for them though? They play in a game that literally no one watches and that makes them more money than winning a FCS championship?
Yes, the conf gets more money this way. For years, the ncaa took so much money from the playoff system, just about all the fcs teams bitched. Don't think it changed much tho.
With the expanded playoffs and more games are televised, this has probably changed. It's doubtful the SWAC and the other conf. will change.
The Grambling/Southern game has a high viewership.
en.wikipedia.org
It is the best known annual game and rivalry in
historically black college or university (HBCU)
football and was nationally televised in the U.S. by
NBC from 1991 to 2014. Since 2015 it has aired on the
NBC Sports Network.
[3] The Bayou Classic was the only
National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Championship Subdivision game to be shown regularly on
broadcast television. Fans have been known to refer to it as the "Black
Super Bowl", although that name is not used in any official capacity by either school due to the
National Football League's restrictions on the use of the "Super Bowl" name. Both schools typically forgo
FCS playoff eligibility to participate in the Bayou Classic. The game is one of two black college football classics to be associated with Thanksgiving weekend; the other is the older
Turkey Day Classic.
The Bayou Classic is a major source of revenue ($50 million) to the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.
[8] 250,000 visitors descend upon New Orleans over the course of the events leading up to the game, and the national television audience has attracted between four and five million viewers.
[9] The success of the game has inspired the promotion of numerous other HBCU
rivalries and "classics". In the past the stadium attendance had averaged between 50,000–70,000 annually. Hurricane Katrina brought some
Then they have their bowl game televised.
Again, I don't know how much money is now available in the playoffs, with more televised games, but I don't see them going back to the playoffs.