Kansas State did not finish the regular season the way it wanted to.

Not by a long shot.

In the thick of the Big 12 race — potentially the College Football Playoff — heading into the final month, the Wildcats stumbled to three losses in their final four games.

The good news: they played well enough early in the season to earn a chance to end it on a good note against Rutgers in today’s Rate Bowl, which takes place at Chase Field, home of MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I hate losing in general,” Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson said. “We earned this opportunity to play another game. We just want to go out and showcase some of the things that we didn’t get to showcase.”

The Wildcats got the season off to a good start, their only loss in the first seven games coming against BYU on Sept. 21. Then things started teetering as teams found a way to slow Kansas State’s power-running offense.

With opponents stacking the line to slow running back DJ Giddens, the Wildcats were far less productive offensively, scoring nine fewer points and putting up nearly 50 fewer yards over the final four games compared to the first eight.

“You can look at taking a loss two different ways: you can either sit there and sulk in it or you can sit there and find something to get better on,” Kansas State center Hadley Panzer said.

Rutgers (7-5) had its rough stretch in the middle of the season, losing four straight games. The Scarlet Knights rebounded to beat Michigan State in the regular-season finale after losing to No. 21 Illinois by a touchdown.

Rutgers has had one of its best offensive seasons in years, averaging 27.9 points per game — best since 2009. The Scarlet Knights also are one of the nation’s best teams at taking care of the ball, ranking eighth nationally in turnovers, committing only eight.

Rutgers is playing bowl games in consecutive years for the first time since a run of four straight from 2011-14.

“We fought through some real adversity this season, injuries to a level that I haven’t really seen very much in my 37 years of doing this, but a team that kind of reinvented itself midseason,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said.

Both teams will be without their top running backs with Giddens and Rutgers’ Kyle Monangai opting out to prepare for the NFL draft.

Giddens led the Wildcats with 1,343 yards and seven touchdowns. Monangai ran for 1,279 yards and 13 touchdowns to lead the Scarlet Knights.

NFL tops CFP in TV ratings >> A pair of Saturday NFL games drew a larger viewing audience than college football for the rollout of the sport’s 12-team playoff.

The playoff game between SMU and Penn State averaged 6.4 million viewers on TNT networks, compared with the Texans-Chiefs game on NBC, which averaged 15.5 million viewers.

Later, Clemson-Texas drew 8.6 million viewers on TNT, compared with 15.4 million for Steelers-Ravens on Fox.

ESPN, ABC and others aired the other two college games — Indiana-Notre Dame (13.4 million) on Friday night and Tennessee-Ohio State (14.3 million) on Saturday night. There were no competing NFL games.

The overall average of 10.6 million viewers was higher than all but four college games this season.

MLB

Ex-Giant calls it quits >> Infielder Ehire Adrianza is retiring after 12 major league seasons.

The 35-year-old, who debuted with the Giants in 2013, announced his decision Tuesday on Instagram.

Adrianza won a World Series title in 2021 with Atlanta and hit .237 with 22 homers and 151 RBIs for San Francisco (2013-16), Minnesota (2017-20), the Braves (2021-24), Washington (2022) and the Angels.

He signed a minor league contract with the Angels in February, started the season at Triple-A Salt Lake and batted .192 with one homer and two RBIs in eight games from April 22 to May 8. He went on the injured list because of back spasms and was released on June 15.

Soccer

Ronaldo’s Christmas vacation >> Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo said it was “just a little cold” as he posed bare-chested in the snow before taking an icy dip in a pool during a Christmas vacation in Finland’s Lapland region.

The 39-year-old Portuguese international traveled with partner Georgina Rodriguez and their children, who met Santa Claus in a 10-minute video posted online by Ronaldo on Tuesday.

The former Real Madrid and Manchester United great appeared to decline to ski with his family. He wished his 645 million Instagram followers a “Merry Christmas” in Spanish.

The Al-Nassr striker is on a winter break from the Saudi Pro League until Jan. 9.