It's probably changed by now, with all the playoffs and such, but it used to be all placed into a pot and shared, but with the caveat that you get an extra "share" of the money from the bowl game you participated in.
i.e. Georgia's $1.7 mill would be split into 16 equal shares. 14 given to all 14 teams, 1 given to the SEC Headquarters, and the last piece given to Georgia, giving them 2/16th's or 1/8th of the $1.7 million, on top of all their 1/16th's shares of all the other bowl games played in.
That's where being upset at being at a bowl with less money comes in. $87k difference between 3 million and 1.7 million, in share speak