Of all the region’s Division I football teams, only Idaho won its final game last season.

Washington State and Boise State turned in desultory performances in their bowl games, Washington lost in the College Football Playoff semifinal, and Eastern Washington lost in the FCS semifinals on a flukey play.

That’s the bad news for those four teams.

The good news is that all five should once again be playing past the regular season.

Idaho: A lot of things went right for the Vandals in their 9-4 season last year, capped by a throttling of Colorado State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.

The last time Idaho was coming off a bowl appearance, the Vandals threatened bowl eligibility the following season, but a couple games didn’t go their way and they just missed out with a 6-7 regular season.

This year, you may have heard, is Idaho’s last in the Sun Belt before dropping down to join EWU in the Big Sky Conference. The league’s going-away present was voting Idaho to finish sixth this season -- even though the Vandals tied for third last year -- and not voting quarterback Matt Linehan to either of its preseason all-conference teams, though he was a second-team selection last year.

Idaho gets co-champion Appalachian State at home this year, and doesn’t play Arkansas State, the other co-champ. The Vandals could be 5-0 heading into the App State meeting.

Even if the Vandals have a slipup or two this year, still, 7-5 will get them back into another bowl on their way out of FBS. And if everything falls right, Idaho could be as good as 9-3.

Washington State: The Cougars lost a bowl game to a Minnesota team that wasn’t sure it wanted to play in one.

Still, that was merely a stain on last year’s 8-5 season, highlighted by victories over Oregon and Stanford in back-to-back weeks as part of a string of eight straight wins.

The Cougs started out 0-2 with losses to EWU and Boise State, then dropped their final three games, starting with losses to Colorado and Washington, who played in the Pac-12 title game.

This year, the Apple Cup figures to decide the Pac-12 North title again this year. This year’s tilt is in Seattle, where the Huskies are trying to build off last year’s “final four” appearance. The fact U-Dub struggled to move the ball against Alabama was a bit troubling -- especially when the Crimson Tide couldn’t stop Clemson a week later. Or perhaps that was just a sign of the difference between the top two teams in the country and the next two.

Anyway, WSU has a chance to exact revenge on Boise State in Week 2, when a Rypien plays at Martin Stadium for the first time in three decades.

This year, the Cougs get USC, Stanford and Colorado at home, and travels to Oregon.

If WSU can beat Boise, the Cougs could be 10-0 before a trip to Utah in the next-to-last week of the regular season. But you figure there will be a slip-up somewhere along the way, though a 9-3 season and another bowl appearance won’t be a bad reward.

Boise State: The Broncos have been confounding of late. BSU is still regarded as the class of the Mountain West, but hasn’t played in the last two conference title games. And getting whipped by a troubled Baylor program in the bowl game was not a pretty sight for fans of the blue-and-orange.

Boise plays at San Diego State in Week 6, a possible roadblock to a conference title.

But if they can avoid the slip-ups that have plagued them in recent seasons (losing at Air Force last year, en route to a 10-2 regular season), the Broncos could be as good as 11-1 this season, and finally get back to the Mountain West title game.

Eastern Washington: Cooper Kupp and Beau Baldwin are gone from last year’s 12-2 squad, but both elevated the program to the point where the Eagles shouldn’t miss a beat under new head coach Aaron Best.

Texas Tech might provide a rude awakening in the opener, but EWU has more than held its own against the big boys (WSU, Washington, Oregon) in recent years.

EWU travels to North Dakota in the second-to-last game of the regular season. Both teams went 8-0 in league last year. The Eags host perennial FCS power North Dakota State in Week 2.

A 9-2 regular season looks likely for EWU -- and perhaps the Eags don’t get beat in the playoffs on a play where the receiver catches the ball up against his back.

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.