I don't see how it wouldn't happen. Bowl games give opportunities to leave impressions on the media and coaches. For example, if we had the bowl game performance of ZW this year, then that's 8 months of media talking about an 18/18 performance from a young QB. And a team that put it together in big games (except the biggest one...), but struggled with consistency, that's exactly the pedigree for a young team poised to take the next jump.

Of course, next year's schedule is a tough one, and I'm not calling for us to go undefeated, just the way the voting works for preseason polls.