Reporter Roundtable: Predictions and perspective for Pac-12 championship

There's been so much conjecture and hand-wringing by many over the setup of the Pac-12 championship game that the matchup itself has seemed to take a backseat to the bristling.

Yes, the Pac-12 subbed Oregon in place of Washington as the North division representative on Monday due to COVID-19 hurdles, resulting in USC wasting a day preparing for the Huskies on an already short week. No, the Ducks did not outright win their division -- but they might have had their own game with Washington not been cancelled last weekend.

Yes, Colorado probably has a reason to feel slighted to whatever degree. The Buffaloes didn't get their shot to play USC head-to-head due to the Trojans' own COVID-19 setbacks, and therefore even had they won their game vs. Utah last week they wouldn't be in this game. But they also lost that game convincingly, so ...

Here's the bottom-line -- this is an unusual, wonky, imperfect, unideal season ... like everybody knew it would be.

And through it all, USC is 5-0, has played with a compelling resilience to get to this point (three dramatic comeback wins, let alone the pandemic obstacles) and gets a shot to compete for its first Pac-12 championship since 2017 as it hosts Oregon (3-2) at 5 p.m. PT Friday in the Coliseum (on FOX). The Trojans are 3-point favorites in the game.

RELATED: Clay Helton reacts to Pac-12 switching title game opponent | PODCAST: Analyst Max Browne previews the Oregon matchup and debates the major storylines of the week | DC Todd Orlando shares insight into USC's unusual week of game prep | Orlando and Oregon OC Joe Moorhead have shared football roots

"I credit this bunch because they have experience. They went through some trials and tribulations last year, last season as a young team that was getting their first opportunities to play, and I thought they grew as a team and started playing their best ball toward the end of the season and have carried that over to this year," coach Clay Helton said this week. "2020 has taught us a lot and it's taught us how to deal with adversity and be able to roll with the punches and never give up, just look for the next opportunity.

"Whether it's these kids that got told to go home on March 15 and didn't get to come back until July 6 and prepared each and every day from July, not knowing whether we were going to have a season or not. They play for the love of the game and play for the love of each other. You can see it. I mean, it's evident. It's evident on the field, it's evident in the locker room and it's been one of my most fun years because of it to see how much fun they're having together. But I think a lot of the things we've been through, both last season as growth and this season with the adversity in the offseason has really grown us as a team and has molded us together and hardened us, so there's no situation we don't think we can overcome."

With that said, the TrojanSports.com team is joined by The Athletic's Antonio Morales to preview the Oregon matchup, the key storylines and give some predictions for Friday night.

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Ryan Young: "The one part that does confound me and that I think bears criticism is that the Pac-12 ever thought Washington would be able to play this game. We talked to Huskies coach Jimmy Lake on Monday after the switch was made and he said his team had no available offensive linemen to even practice this week due to COVID-19. Considering the Huskies had to cancel their game last weekend, those would seem to be at least mostly pre-existing cases with a fairly known timeline of isolation/quarantine. So it's doubtful anything actually changed from Saturday, when the conference announced USC-Washington, to Monday when it subbed in Oregon. While the coaches downplayed the setback, wasting a day of prep on the wrong team because the conference couldn't get ahead of the situation does seem like a disadvantage, especially when Oregon had last week off and was surely preparing for this very scenario. That said, the rest of it I don't buy into. I don't care that Oregon didn't outright win the division. It's not like Washington was an unchallenged juggernaut -- the Huskies played 4 games. And I personally would rather there be a Pac-12 championship game than just to award USC some hollow title. As for the Colorado stuff, I'm over that. The Buffaloes needed to beat Utah if they wanted to have legitimate gripes this week."

Tajwar Khandaker: "It was pretty clear from the jump that the conference was mismanaging this situation. Washington was nowhere near ready to play Oregon on Saturday; there should have been no reason for the conference to assume they’d be good to go by the next week. The decision to initially stick with Washington as the North’s representative limited the Trojans' available full days of practice to prepare for Oregon. There’s no way that should ever happen, and the Pac-12 deserves to be criticized for allowing it to become an issue."

Antonio Morales: "Honestly, I don't care much for it. Oregon did not win its division, but not like it had a true shot to win it because its game against Washington was canceled for reasons out of the Ducks' control. I tend to think Oregon would have beaten Washington if the two teams played. It's not like the Huskies were some juggernaut who was rolling over teams. They needed a favorable spot to beat Oregon State, a stunning rally to beat Washington and lost to Stanford."

Ryan: "It's probably a worse matchup to some degree. To be clear, though, this isn't the Oregon Ducks of 2019 with an NFL QB, an elite offensive line and a bounty of defensive playmakers. Here's a state for you -- between graduation, the NFL draft and opt outs, Oregon lost a combined 495 career starts from its roster. The drop-off on defense has been significant as Oregon is giving up 28 PPG (up from 16.5 last season) and 419.8 yards per game (up from 329.1 last year) after having its top three defensive backs opt out of the season. After ranking second nationally in interceptions last year (including 3 against USC), the Ducks have just 2 interceptions in 5 games. Their offense is still productive, but it's definitely not the same team overall. After a 3-0 start, they lost their last two games to Oregon State and Cal. That said, Washington's best win was a 3-point victory over Utah in which it fell behind 21-0 before falling back to win 24-21. Otherwise, it beat Oregon State, a winless Arizona team and lost to Stanford. Oregon at least piles up the points, and that may be what's needed to beat this USC team. I think the Ducks are a bigger challenge overall and also have fresh memories of their 56-24 win over USC in the Coliseum last year. Then again, maybe that's a rallying point for the Trojans as that was such a deflating game in an otherwise encouraging second half of last season."

Tajwar: "I don’t necessarily feel that the Ducks are much better or worse than the Huskies. Oregon’s offense is better, but Washington’s defense has been much more consistent. I do think that the added edge of USC-Oregon would likely have been missing if Washington were the opponent, so that might amount to a more competitive game. Either way, I don’t particularly think there’s a big difference."

Antonio: "I think it's a worse matchup for USC. Oregon's offense is its strength while Washington's defense is its strong suit. I think the Ducks' offense poses more problems for USC than the Huskies' defense."