Its really hard to say. For example, 4 years ago on January 4th no K-State fan would've thought that the current situation would exist. Its not like we parlayed that season into bypassing average ku and MU teams (both made bowl appearances). Things can turn, and as we've seen they can turn pretty quickly.
Granted, MU and ku's unprecedented success doesn't make it easier, but its going to be all about what KSU does with their current situation and whether or not Prince can get things fixed and build a program (with hopefully a little patience) like we've seen done in Columbia and Lawrence. Frankly, I have no idea where will be in 4 or 5 years b/c its kind of hard to guage where we are going right now. However, I don't think that means its time to gut the thing and start over. Right now all we can do as KSU fans (unless we have several hundred grand lying around collecting dust) is wait and see what happens. Sucks as fans, but that is where we are at.