Even in light of Saturday’s loss, that’s all that matters to me. I would have liked to have beaten James Madison, as the game was there for the taking, just as three other close games that turned into losses have been. But outside of the initial postgame emotions – and they were strong, for sure! – the only thing I’m really bummed about is that the Cougars missed an opportunity to secure bowl eligibility.

Which is why I now find myself looking ahead at the possibility that awaits this weekend much more than looking back at what could have been over the last couple of months.

I would never say what I am about to say in the presence of coach Jimmy Rogers or any of the players, but the truth is that all these close losses on the road to Mississippi, Virginia, Oregon State, and James Madison are ultimately inconsequential … provided we can simply win one more game on Saturday. 

Well, maybe that’s not entirely accurate; I suppose they’d have been consequential if we somehow had figured out how to win all of them, as we’d be ranked and have a really good case for that non-Power 4 CFP berth. But it’s rare that a team wins – or loses (ugh) – all their close games, so I’m not going to go down that road. 

Instead, let’s consider the difference between where we’ll be on Saturday if we beat Oregon State for a sixth win vs. where we’d have been if we beat Oregon State and we’d won just two of the four close losses to finish with eight wins:

The bowl tie-ins for the Pac-12 are the same as they were in the “before times” for this one last season, and the selections follow the same order they always did, but instead are determined by the overall record of every team that used to be in the conference. There are already six “legacy” Pac-12 teams with eight or more wins, which means that even with eight wins, WSU would be competing with Utah and ASU and Washington and USC and Arizona – at least some of whom will end with nine wins – for the six Pac-12 bowl selections. Maybe one of the old Pac-12 bowls would have loved us and reached down for us at eight wins, but I’ll venture that we probably would have fallen to the bottom of that pecking order at this point (through no fault of our own, just like everything else).

They’re not meaningless, for a host of reasons relating to the coaches and players who put in all the work and would very much like to win – and I would have been more thrilled for them than for me if they’d been able to beat a ranked opponent on the road. But winning those games also wouldn’t have likely made a material difference in the ultimate outcome of the season. There’s no need to play “what if,” as the losses didn’t cost us a conference championship, we’ll still go to a bowl game, and that bowl game will probably be of roughly the same quality as it would have otherwise been.

Provided, of course, that we beat Oregon State on Saturday. 

That’s why all my attention is now focused on this weekend – and why I’ll be absolutely tickled if the Cougs can just somehow, some way, get to six wins.

I don’t recall exactly how many wins I predicted before the season; I might not even have gone on the record with a number, and I’m too lazy to go back and find out. But I know that when I looked at the schedule, six wins seemed like a stretch. I remember trying to feel optimistic, but also being realistic about how difficult this would all be with a new coach, overturned roster stocked with a lot of FCS transfers, and less-than-ideal travel.

Yet here the Cougars sit, just one game away from bowl eligibility. For many programs, eking into a bowl is something worth little more than a footnote on a season that didn’t live up to expectations. Heck, we were in that spot just 12 months ago after backing into the Holiday Bowl (with eight wins!) and arriving in San Diego without our head coach, most of his staff, and a huge number of players who had already declared their intention to transfer. 

Conversely, a bowl game after this season, under this coach, and with these players would mean so, so much – to them and to the program. The seemingly antiquated concept of bowl-game-as-reward will be alive and well once again. Yes, there will be the added practices and such that coaches love, but my thoughts about the value of making a bowl are with the players … and with us.

Bowl games aren’t old hat to these guys, and I imagine they’ll be grateful for a number of things if they can get there. They’ll be looking forward to the entire bowl experience, which includes a week at the location to celebrate their accomplishment, complete with “gift suites” worth at least $550 to each player (and often more). It’s also a chance to play one more game together. 

And for me, as a fan, I’ll be really excited to watch a team that wants to be there – even if it’s Albuquerque, New Mexico – and wants to win, with the actual capability to do so, rather than watching a shell of a squad that is plagued with bowl opt-outs. Bowl results don’t have any implications beyond the game itself, but it will be fun to watch an actual contest involving my team in a bowl game for the first time in a while.

I also think there’s actually something really cool about being able to make a bowl game in both of these transition seasons. Bowl games obviously aren’t the singular point of pride they once were¹ for all the reasons we’ve gone over, but I’ll say this: They’re still a mark of winning at least as many games as you lose, which means you’ve gotten to have a fair amount of fun along the way during the season.

The program we’re playing on Saturday hasn’t had a lot of fun the last two years, having fired their alumnus coach after missing a bowl game in both of these post-apocalypse seasons; their fans would probably sell at least a part of their soul to have gotten to experience at least one. And we’ve got a shot to make it two-for-two with a win over that team, at home, where we’ve been very good as of late? As a point of comparison to our our peers, I think that matters.

“We’ve got one game left with these seniors. It means a lot for us to finish off the right way and we plan to do that,” Rogers said after the game on Saturday. “This one — this one stings and in a lot of ways we played well enough to win the game. And we just didn't.

“And so, as I told the guys in the locker room: One opportunity left to make this season, and be bowl eligible, and have the opportunity to play with each other one more time. I think that's important.”

The close losses have been frustrating, no doubt. But I just can’t be that mad about something I don’t think I had any right to expect to expect in the first place. However, I still get excited about the unexpected.

Get that sixth win, get to a bowl game, and let’s celebrate.