From your local Sunday guestimologist in the Sunday, Aug. 28 sports section:

The last time Idaho, Washington State and Boise State each played in a bowl game in the same season was ... never.

That could change this fall.

Well, that did change this fall, as Idaho, WSU and Boise State are all headed to bowl games, and Eastern Washington is still alive in the FCS playoffs.

Here’s a look back at how we thought those four college football programs would fare this fall, and how they actually did:

Idaho: We picked the Vandals to go 7-5, but the Silver and Gold did us one better, going 8-4 and qualifying for a bowl game for the first time since 2009, and only the third time since moving up to FBS in 1996.

Naturally, they’re moving back down to FCS in 2018.

Idaho beat the teams it was supposed to beat this year, and avoided the slip-ups that cost the Vandals a shot at a bowl last year. Two of Idaho’s losses were to the aforementioned bowl-bound Cougars, and a Husky team that turned out pretty good as well. The Vandals’ other two losses were to Appalachian State, which tied for first place in the Sun Belt, and Troy, which tied the Vandals for third place.

All four of Idaho’s losses were to teams headed to bowls, and Idaho beat two bowl-bound teams in Louisiana-Lafayette and South Alabama.

Cynics will note five of Idaho’s six Sun Belt wins came against the bottom five finishers in the 11-team conference, and the Vandals avoided playing co-champ Arkansas State. But the Vandals didn’t make the schedule; they only had to play it. And besides, even against bad teams in recent years, Idaho was prone to stumble.

But not this year.

And no matter how the Vandals got there, Idaho’s reward is a matchup with Colorado State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise on Dec. 22, where, if history is any guide, the Vandals will win a high-scoring game in thrilling fashion.

Washington State: We picked the Cougs to go 10-2 and they ended up 8-4, but still headed for a bowl game like we thought they would — they just took a different route.

Especially after stumbling out of the gate, losing their opener at home to Eastern Washington and falling at Boise State the following week.

From August:

Crazy as it may sound, if the Cougars can beat Oregon at home to open Pac-12 play, and win at Stanford the following week, WSU could run the table in the conference.

Well, they did thump the Ducks and the Cardinal to open conference play, and even though neither of those two teams played to the level they have played at in recent years, that wasn’t WSU’s fault, and they were springboard wins for the Cougars.

WSU nearly ran the table in conference, before losing at formerly lowly Colorado, then getting whacked by the Huskies in the Apple Cup.

Still, they earned a holiday at the Holiday Bowl, on Dec. 27 in San Diego vs. Minnesota.

Boise State: Seldom can a team finish with as strong a record as 10-2 with little fanfare, but the bar is that high in Boise these days.

The first blemish was a loss at Wyoming, spoiling a 7-0 start. Then a loss at Air Force in the regular season finale eliminated all hopes of a New Year’s Six bowl, as well as a trip to the conference title game.

Boise State is still the team everybody in the Mountain West wants to beat, but the Broncos had to watch Wyoming and San Diego State play for the conference title.

We pegged Boise State to finish 11-1, losing to WSU. We didn’t think they would lose two conference games ... again.

The Broncos’ reward — the Cactus Bowl Dec. 27 in Tucson, where presumably the light will be left on for them.

Eastern Washington: The Eagles, after a rare miss of the playoffs last year, entered this season with some uncertainty at quarterback. But that problem was solved by Gage Gubrud before the end of the first game, and he combined with Cooper Kupp to keep the EWU offense humming.

We said the Eags would go 7-4 and they turned out much better than that. Their only loss in a 10-1 regular season was a narrow one at five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State, and are now heading into the FCS semifinals at 12-1, just one home win away from a possible rematch with the Bison in the championship game.

Eastern’s biggest win might have come off the field, keeping head coach Beau Baldwin around for (presumably) at least another year.

Like ABBA, one of these years a bigger (FBS) school is going to take a chance on Beau, either as a head coach, or an offensive coordinator/head coach in waiting.

But until then ...

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.