Raise your hand if you thought in August the Badgers would go to the Rose Bowl.

Seriously. Do it. I don’t care who’s watching.

Keep your hand up if you still thought that after the Arizona State game.

One or two hands might have gone down there, I imagine.

Now, keep your hand up if you still thought that after the Michigan State game.

And now we’re done.

It’s a point that has been revisited over and over again, and I’m obviously guilty of it as well: UW looked cooked and ready to be served the minute week one of Big Ten play ended.

Lucky for anyone who put a preseason bet on this kind of thing, it still ended happily for Badger fans. How about that?

Here at Herald Sports, we weren’t immune to preseason dreaming. Wisconsin had Rose Bowl aspirations in our eyes and the talent to do it. We ran a graphic showing a reflection of the Rose Bowl facade in Aaron Henry’s visor. The front-page feature in the first issue of the semester was about how unstoppable Wisconsin’s offense would be.

Twenty points against Arizona State and 27 against San Jose State later, and that proclamation looked like hyperbole – and that’s the nice way of saying it.

But even before the season, when every team had a clean slate, I was antsy about the Badgers’ chances. Sure, I touted their skill and determination, but I felt uncomfortable when I envisioned being in Pasadena.

So were the Badgers.

“I got nervous when I did that. I knew our team was good, but I really wondered how we would handle expectations,” center Peter Konz said after the Northwestern game.

After the game in East Lansing, it looked like I would have to eat my words, as far as proclaiming the Badgers a Big Ten contender.

Expectations are so easily derailed, dreams deferred and insert clich? here. In college football it only takes one misstep to ruin preseason goals. Ohio State only stumbled once, but it cost the Buckeyes their shot at the national title.

Wisconsin tripped up too, but as luck would have it, a black and yellow incarnation of fate stepped in and gave the Badgers another chance.

And now, even with flights booked and hotels chosen, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

The Badgers are going back to the Rose Bowl.

It’s the perfect ending for an almost-perfect season. It’s hard to believe, especially given the Oct. 2 Game We Can’t Let Go Of.

A team only gets so many chances to get to its ideal final destination – 12 or 13, to be exact. And as Bret Bielema is fond of saying, it’s important to go 1-0 in each of those opportunities, lest you end up disappointed.

And here we are, in a state of non-disappointment. I think we all figured, as high as our hopes were, that we were in for another Outback or Capital One Bowl appearance. As Moffitt said after the NU game, the Rose Bowl bid is a bit surreal.

Very rarely in life do you dream of something and actually achieve it. As a sports fan, that percentage tends to drop even further.

But the simple fact is, the Badgers are in the position they hoped they would be in. They got to the Rose Bowl. But that’s not where the story ends. As I’ve said in the past, it’s how the last domino falls that defines the season.

For all the celebrating, all the money spent on airfare or tickets, all the festivity, it will all be rendered moot if Wisconsin does not win.

Bielema might be one third of the way to Barry Alvarez’s Rose Bowl appearances, but he’s still got a goose egg in the column that counts: Rose Bowl wins.

It’s no given that Wisconsin will win. This bout is more Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed than David vs. Goliath. Lost in TCU’s No. 1 defense is the fact the Horned Frogs scored exactly as many points as the Badgers.

To ensure this season does not leave a bitter taste in anyone’s mouth, it is crucial Wisconsin wins this game. The 2009-2010 men’s hockey team is proof of this. What those Badgers are overwhelmingly remembered for – unfairly or not – is 5-0 in the title game.

When you get a chance to put an exclamation point on your season, you better take advantage of it. The preseason goal might have been to get to the Rose Bowl, but now UW has to win it.

There’s one more week left to go 1-0 and the Badgers need to deliver, lest this successful season ceases to be viewed with rose-colored glasses.

As Al Davis said, just win, baby.

Adam is a senior majoring in journalism. Are you still in disbelief that UW actually made it to Pasadena? Think it’s all thrown away if the Badgers lose? Email him at [email protected] or tweet @AdamJSHolt.