Yes, every team can play the “what-if” game. And yes, the Gophers needed a late rallies to defeat both USC and UCLA. Those easily could have been losses, and a realist can say most teams will have their dramatic wins and dramatic losses even out over the course of time.
More than anything, this little daydream reinforces how important the expanded playoff is to a school like Minnesota.
The Gophers might have had a team once every generation worthy of trying to land a spot in the old four-team format. The 2019 team, for example, was in that conversation had the end of the Big Ten season concluded differently.
In a field with 12 (or eventually, we imagine, 16) teams? A mid-level program like Minnesota should have a squad capable of busting into that group once every three to five years, and it should actually make it at least once a decade.
This year’s Gophers will probably lose again this year — perhaps as soon as Saturday at Illinois against a coach (Bret Bielema) they have never defeated.
But this year could have been even more than what it is. And future years will be.
