First of all let me clarify that it is undeniable that being in the Big 12 is far superior to being in any other G5. Money, competition, atmosphere, basketball, etc. are all amazing and worth it. But, playoff access is far worse than if we were in the MWC. Boise State will have an inside track to a playoff berth every single year. Occasionally a UNLV will rise up and challenge them once in a blue moon, but largely it will be Boise St every single year. They'll even schedule one big non-conference game but it won't really matter much if they lose (like this year to Oregon) because they will march right through the rest of the league and almost always end up being the highest ranked G5 school.

I'm not sure if this is meant to be a positive or negative post. I wouldn't trade our situation for anything. But it's undeniable that when it comes to playoff access, it's so much better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.

Having said all that, we had as big an inside track to the playoffs as could be imagined with a cushion of one loss with three games to go and we couldn't get it done. That's heartbreaking--regardless of where we were supposed to be back in August.