This is a pretty dynamic situation. Not specifically Grier, but all of those that choose to sit out of a bowl game in order to prepare for the draft/NFL. Personally, I think we can thank the BCS for this.
Does anyone really care about any of the bowl games until those starting around 29 Dec? Even a couple of the bowl games that day are meaningless ... even the Peach Bowl is consider meaningless by most across the nation and even probably some UF and UM fans. We just got one of the best honorable mention bowl games, thats all. It means a bit more to us because its our team and we know where they were a year ago.
I dont know if it will get better either. The only way I see it becoming meaningful for more teams each year is maybe expanding the playoffs to more teams. I read it somewhere that a 16 team playoff could take all 10 conf champs and then leave the remaining 6 spots open to be filled by the remaining highest ranked teams. Everyone else goes and has a meaningless honorable mention bowl game. Though players would still not play in the bowl games, I bet it would be rare to see a player skip playing in the playoffs. Just spit-balling and throwing a red herring out there in this conversation.
I gotta say though, not a huge fan of how it has evolved though.