The problem is we are rarely close to making a bowl. We either have a 2007 type year or 2009. This past year was the first time in a very long time that we were one win away from a bowl.
The two great traumas in the modern history of the program were 2002 and 2008 where our two sudden bursts of success and optimism and fan interest were totally and utterly incinerated into irredeemable rubble within 11 months in both cases.
If we scheduled like a team that was building something, both of those are bowl seasons. Steps backward in each case, sure, but also a solidification of what came before. In both cases we'd have been 3-0 and ranked in late September. The butterfly effect from those scheduling decisions is staggering.