[Goose]

I regret that Christian McCaffrey was one of the first high profile players to electively sit for a Bowl Game.

But yeah, if you make it all about the playoffs, then the Bowl Games become like the NIT of college football.

BC

for 

1.  schools who aspire to be in "top tier" the CFP is sort of like March Madness, if you don't get in you don't belong, of course March Madness takes ~20% of eligible teams while the CFP takes ~10% so the CFP is "more exclusive"
2.  the next tier of Bowl games (~10 of them) are like the NIT 
3.  the rest are like the CBI

I mostly agree with your analysis. However, there is a serious "side effect" of the CFP taking the top 10% and March Madness taking the top 20%. The teams that end up in the next tier of Bowl games are very unhappy they are there and as a result quite a few players will "opt out" for various reasons. These teams (and their fans) often consider their season somewhat of a failure despite being in the top 10%. Those that do play realize this is not all that useful to their future.
 
The teams that make the NIT in most cases realize early on in the season they didn't have a shot at winning it all and are much more likely to be happy they have any post-season opportunity at all. While there will be some disgruntled participants, most of the players are either glad to be there or resigned to the idea this is the best they could do and try to win the NIT. Very different situations IMO.

[Goose]

I regret that Christian McCaffrey was one of the first high profile players to electively sit for a Bowl Game.

But yeah, if you make it all about the playoffs, then the Bowl Games become like the NIT of college football.

BC

for 

1.  schools who aspire to be in "top tier" the CFP is sort of like March Madness, if you don't get in you don't belong, of course March Madness takes ~20% of eligible teams while the CFP takes ~10% so the CFP is "more exclusive"
2.  the next tier of Bowl games (~10 of them) are like the NIT 
3.  the rest are like the CBI

I mostly agree with your analysis. However, there is a serious "side effect" of the CFP taking the top 10% and March Madness taking the top 20%. The teams that end up in the next tier of Bowl games are very unhappy they are there and as a result quite a few players will "opt out" for various reasons. These teams (and their fans) often consider their season somewhat of a failure despite being in the top 10%. Those that do play realize this is not all that useful to their future.
 
The teams that make the NIT in most cases realize early on in the season they didn't have a shot at winning it all and are much more likely to be happy they have any post-season opportunity at all. While there will be some disgruntled participants, most of the players are either glad to be there or resigned to the idea this is the best they could do and try to win the NIT. Very different situations IMO.