Special edition of the ‘Saturday Night Five’: Given what transpired over the past 28 hours, it’s Saturday Night One.

One topic: Did the Pac-12 schedule itself out of the College Football Playoff?

The premise, on the surface, seems extreme. The season’s far from over, and the conference has several teams that could contend.

And yet …

Considering the nature of the losses by its top teams, the issue feels substantial enough to discuss (no conclusions, just a discussion):

* USC lost a Friday night road game after playing a Saturday road game. The Trojans were undefeated and ranked fifth at the time.

* Washington State lost a Friday night road game after a Saturday road game. The Cougars were undefeated and ranked eighth at the time.

* Washington lost to a home team coming off a bye, with two full weeks to prepare. The Huskies were undefeated and ranked fifth at the time.

All three situations could be considered competitive disadvantages for the contenders.

Playing a short-week road game following a road game doesn’t guarantee a loss, not by any stretch. Nor does playing a road game against a team coming off a bye.

It’s entirely possible that one of those three teams will regroup and run the table and finish in the semifinals.

And let’s be sure to note that the opponent, in each case, played a significant role in the outcome. Get Pac-12 Conference news in your inbox with the Pac-12 Hotline newsletter Sign Up

Washington State, playing its fifth consecutive home game, was fresh and sharp against USC. But the Trojans weren’t at their best, clearly, after a rugged stretch.

Cal was terrific at home Friday night and dominated the Cougars, who lacked their usual focus — the 5 p.m. kickoff in Eugene, the post-midnight return to campus and the short week of recovery and preparation surely contributed to the performance.

Arizona State was also impressive Saturday night, tough and resourceful and full of the energy you’d expect from a home team wth two weeks to prepare for a top-five opponent.

So we’ll give credit to the winners, for sure. And we’ll acknowledge that the losers had plenty of issues that cannot be directly attributed to scheduling. (For instance: UW’s field goal kicking.)

And we’ll admit that scheduling is difficult, very difficult, especially with so many quirks — from the Stanford/USC-Notre Dame issue to the contracts with ESPN and Fox that allow for the Thursday and Friday games.

BUT …

We’ll also argue that the schedule matters … that a competitive disadvantage increases the chance of losing … and that three Pac-12 playoff contenders were at competitive disadvantages in recent weeks — and lost. Related Articles The night game discussion just got real: Urban Meyer weighs in (and he’s not happy)

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Also: Other Power Five conferences don’t place teams in as many difficult situations as the Pac-12.

They don’t ask teams to play Friday road games after Saturday road games; they don’t give one participant a bye before a crucial rivalry game (Washington State is off before the Apple Cup); and they rarely ask teams to play conference games against opponents coming off a bye.

Washington faces that predicament three times this season. No other preseason AP top-10 team is doing it more than once, and most aren’t doing it at all.

So we’ll end with this: Definitive conclusions are risky in mid-October. But the Pac-12 would be wise to pay careful attention to the schedule in future years, to the instances of competitive disadvantage.

It’s not the only reason teams lose. It’s hardly the only reason USC, Washington State and Washington lost the games they lost.

But to dismiss the schedule issues as irrelevant would be a mistake.

Qualifying for the playoff is tough enough, especially with the nine-game conference schedule. Any chance the Pac-12 has to remove an obstacle, it should.

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