I came from a different place than you all did and was at Indiana during Bob Knight's early years. The first game of the undefeated season (1975-1976) we played UCLA in their first post-Wooden game and beat them by 20. When we met them again in the tournament one of their better players said, "They won the first one, we'll win the one that counts." We beat them again, this time by 14. Knight said at his post-game presser, "Tell Richard Washington they all count."
A Bowl like this, against an opponent like this, is a statement game imo. Also, this year, a chance to really prove that the selection process got it wrong. Do I still think the program is moving in the right direction and headed toward Top 5 finishes as often as not? Heck yes. Also, these flat, uninspired performances are far less frequent than they were pre-Smart. It is still a really disappointing loss with the optics of the CFP chatter making it worse.
If I felt that the game was meaningless, I would have had my wife pick out a movie or I would have read a book.
On another note, I was shocked at Fromm's performance, but maybe credit Texas's D a little bit for that.
Looking forward to 2019, especially the Eye-rash rolling into Athens.