Northwestern’s flirtation with the College Football Playoff was fun, wasn’t it?

It only lasted four days, from Tuesday’s unveiling of the poll which ranked them eighth, until Saturday, when the Wildcats were unceremoniously dumped by Michigan State in a 29-20 loss that ended the charade.

But for four days Northwestern got to breathe the rarified air of schools like Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame and feel like college football royalty.

They were the toast of ESPN College GameDay after Joey Galloway inadvertently spawned a rallying cry by likening their players to “a bunch of Rece Davises.” They were the little school that could, the feel good story of the week.

It was like they had crashed a party at some exclusive club in the Hollywood Hills and got to hang out with the Kardashians and sip martinis at the bar until the bouncer came around, checked their IDs and showed them the door.

It didn’t last long, but the spotlight sure was nice.

Northwestern was going get escorted out of the CFP party sooner or later. They weren’t really in the hunt for a national semifinal berth. They had earned the right to be ranked eighth, certainly, but they weren’t close to being the eighth-best team in the country.

The Wildcats had won five straight games, but just one team was ranked and two had winning records. Still, coming off of a 17-7 strangulation of then-No. 10 Wisconsin, they were feeling confident that they could play with anyone.

If they could just win their next three games, against also-rans MSU, Minnesota and Illinois, and get to the Big Ten championship game, the thinking went, anything could happen in one game against presumed opponent Ohio State. If the No. 4 Buckeyes were off that day and turned the ball over a few times, maybe the Cats could upset them and steal a spot the semifinals.

It was all a fever dream. Michigan State proved that on Saturday, waking the Wildcats up like a garbage truck at 7 a.m. The Spartans, just 1-3 after scoring one touchdown over the last 10 quarters, exposed all of Northwestern’s flaws.

The Wildcats again couldn’t run the ball, averaging an anemic 1.7 yards-per-carry. They were stuffed in short-yardage situations time and again. Their offensive line was overrun. Peyton Ramsey, who bailed out the sporadic offense all season, couldn’t carry them this time, as he was harassed constantly while throwing two interceptions without a touchdown.

The Wildcat defense, the heart and soul of the team, gave up a 75-yard TD pass early in the first quarter that knocked them back on their heels. The Spartans nearly tripled their average rushing yards per game, with 195, and almost doubled their average points per game. Northwestern couldn’t stop the Spartans on third downs, where they succeeded 10 of 21 times. MSU quarterback Rocky Lombardi burned them in the air with two TDs and on the ground with 65 rushing yards, many of them on designed quarterback draws on third down.

They even out-Northwesterned Northwestern, winning the turnover battle against the nation’s best team in turnover margin.

As Pat Fitzgerald said in a tweet on Saturday night, “We got what we deserved.”

The Wildcats aren’t as bad as they looked against Michigan State. They just had a clunker of a game. It happens.

But even at their best, they weren’t as good as their No. 8 ranking, either. They showed on Saturday that, if they’re not firing on all cylinders, they couldn’t beat a team that lost its last two games by the combined score of 73-7.

Northwestern was set up to fail in this one. Coming off a big, emotional win and going on the road as a 13.5-point favorite was a tough draw. They prefer being the underdog, the hunter rather than the hunted.

While Saturday’s loss popped Northwestern’s CFP balloon, the good news is that, as Fitzgerald said, “All of our goals are still in front of us.”

The Wildcats are still in the driver’s seat in the Big Ten West and need one more win to clinch the division title. Do that, and they’ll earn a berth in the Big Ten title game for the second time in three years.

Winning the West and winning the Big Ten championship are two of the three team goals that are etched in glass at the Walter Athletics Center. The third, “win our bowl game,” is within reach, too.

Even though it ended with a face-plant on the red carpet, it was still an intoxicating week for Northwestern and its fans. It was a chance to get to see how the other half lives in the bright light of paparazzi flashbulbs.

Just don’t expect many more of those Fighting Rece Davis T-shirts to fly off the shelves.