Last week, the No. 18/20 Stony Brook football team held a commanding 31-10 lead over No. 24 New Hampshire after scoring a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Had they been able to hold on to what appeared to be a certain win, the Seawolves (8-4, 5-3 CAA) would have undoubtedly seen their name called during Sunday’s selection show, earning a spot in the NCAA Division I Football Championship for the first time since 2018.

Instead, Stony Brook’s remarkable season under first-year head coach Billy Cosh — who restored esteem to a program that had endured just two wins over a two-year stretch, including a winless campaign in 2023 — has come to a somewhat anticlimactic end.

On that fateful day, the Seawolves — who were pursuing their fifth straight victory — allowed three touchdowns in a 8:35 span en route to a 31-30 loss. In its regular season finale a week later, Stony Brook was on the wrong side of a shootout against Monmouth.

With their head-to-head defeat against the Wildcats, the Seawolves entered the bracket selection as the fourth-best Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) team in the running for an at-large bid to the 2024 playoffs, and placed sixth overall in the conference — while ninth-seeded No. 7/10 Richmond secured the league’s regular season title and its automatic bid.

Stony Brook’s arguable best win coming versus William & Mary — who finished 7-5 overall and 4-4 in the CAA this season and, by the end of its year, it dropped out of both the Stats Perform Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Top 25 and American Football Coaches Association FCS Coaches Poll — was not enough to earn it one of the 14 available at-large spots.

Three of the four non-automatic squads in front of the Seawolves in the conference standings — 10th-seeded No. 13/15 Rhode Island, 11th-seeded No. 14/15 Villanova and the aforementioned 16th-seeded New Hampshire — each secured at-large bids to the playoffs. The only exception is Delaware, who is joining the Football Bowl Subdivision and Conference USA next season and, as part of its transition process, it is not eligible for these playoffs.

Despite the sour ending, Stony Brook’s future following this year looks promising thanks to an unexpected, but delightful 2024 campaign.

Correction (11/25): Richmond and Rhode Island shared the CAA’s regular season title, as the Rams’ only conference loss was against Delaware, which, due to it being in a transition year, could not cost a team a league championship.