The question of "How upsetting is to get left out of the playoff as a 12-1 conference champion?" keeps circling in my head. It certainly would suck at the time, but I would still be happy with our team, if we won an NY6 Bowl in a convincing fashion. The only thing that still upsets me about the season and would certainly continue to upset me if the above nightmare scenario played out is that we couldn't stop Dillon Gabriel from marching down the field with 1:15 left in the game. At that time, we had taken the lead and had kept them out of the endzone for 24 minutes of game clock (since 10:21 in 3Q). And then the defense just fucking collapsed when it mattered the most. Like many posters above have already said, that falls squarely on our shoulders.
Another thing I've always felt strongly about is having a rule precluding conference non champions from participating in the playoff if the team they lost to is in the playoff. There are five P5 conferences and only four playoff spots. The immediate rematch bullshit needs to stop. If there are only four spots, one loss conference champions should not be at risk of getting left out to two teams that already played a head to head game in the same conference. There should be no risk of having a Michigan-Ohio State or Oregon-Washington rematch in the playoff while a one loss Texas sits at home and watches. Thankfully this shouldn't be a factor when we have an adult sized playoff bracket next year.