The age-old line is hard to ignore when you’re evaluating a college football season. “You are what your record says you are,” is what they like to say.

And it’s mostly true. There’s no doubt that Michigan State’s 7-5 record says a lot about their season. Mix that in with the eye test, and “disappointment” is the first word that jumps to mind. But if a lot of preseason prognostications peg you as an 8-4 team before the season starts, missing by a game doesn’t seem to be so bad.

Losing to arch-rivals Michigan and Ohio State is never fun, but they were legitimate top-10 teams. Northwestern was the Big Ten West champion. The losses to Arizona State and Nebraska — one early in the season, one late — magnified the offensive deficiencies of this team.

That’s the one nice thing about having a bowl game a month after the fact, because it gives you a chance to erase some bad memories and, with a win, take some positive feelings into the offseason.

The benefit for Michigan State is that there is a high-profile opponent across the line of scrimmage on Dec. 31. Oregon has been one of college football’s better program over the past decade or so, and with their array of wild uniform combinations, they always capture a lot of eyeballs.

Playing against them, even far away in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve, matters. And beating them — Oregon is a 3-point favorite — would really be a result that people would notice.

“While most of the United States of America feels like (the College Football Playoff is) all there is to it, there’s a lot of other good football teams out there who are very excited to go play in other venues,” Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. “I think bowl games are about life experiences and about challenges in trying to move your program forward for the next phase, the next year.

“Our guys are very excited to come and play.”

Both teams have had a good bit of success since Dantonio came to East Lansing prior to the 2007 season. He’s won double-digit games six times and has three Big Ten titles.

Oregon really took off when Chip Kelly took over for Mike Bellotti, and he was double-digit games every one of his four seasons from 2009-12. Mark Helfrich took over when Kelly went to the NFL and the success continued. Oregon made it to the 2014 national championship game in the first season of the College Football Playoff. The Ducks also have won two Rose Bowls – one a national semifinal game – and a Fiesta Bowl in that time.

Oregon was just 8-4 this year, but the Ducks have one of the top quarterbacks in the nation in Justin Herbert. There are challenges ahead for the Spartans, and that’s a good thing. It’s nice to have something to play for this time of year, and a win over a program like Oregon would be a big thing.

“If we’re not going to the Rose Bowl or one of the big (New Year’s Six) games, you’ve got to try and feel it out,” Dantonio said. “So there’s always pluses and minuses to every aspect of everything that we do. But I’ve always looked at the glass at being half-full.”