... handouts from a p5 conference. How would Zach have played if he was on a team full of p5 players? All your questions are hypothetical questions that are impossible to answer. SOS is difficult to control because schedules are done usually years in advance and over time players change, coaching staff changes, injuries happen, etc. A team might have a great season one year and so another team schedules them wanting to strengthen their schedule only to find that 4 yrs later when the game is supposed to be played that team got a new coach, the former coach left the cupboards bare and so the new coach is stuck with lousy players in his first year going 2-10 when you finally play them.
What we do know is we had a good schedule last year, your conference wussed out and so we had to make the best of it. You quit, now you're complaining we didn't play you so it doesn't count. Pretty lame.