Column:  Pac-12 football is halfway to ... what?

The halfway point of a brand new season, with a brand new system, has prompted plenty of questions.

We’ll start in the Pac-12 Conference with Stanford and ask:

•What if Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s favorite team knew how to close out games?

Stanford has lost two games, both to ranked teams, by six total points.

Stanford gives up a nation-low average of 10 points per game. But the seven points Stanford handed to Notre Dame on a late fourth-down scoring pass have taken the Cardinal out of the playoff chase.

•What happened to our local heroes?

UCLA and USC started as top-15 teams in the preseason Associated Press media poll.

It turned out to be a misery index.

This was the year UCLA was going to live up to lofty expectations. The Bruins commanded respect and the spotlight, but stumbled out of the gate like a nag at Santa Anita.

Three straight early escapes actually dropped them in the rankings, then a resonating performance at Arizona State actually had some of us fooled.

Then came two home defeats. The first was determined in the last seconds to Utah, the other in the first seconds against Oregon.

UCLA sits at 4-2, and two stats scream the story.

The Bruins’ line can’t protect their quarterback, their 4.17 sacks-per-game average ranks No. 122 out of 125 top-level teams. And they can’t get to the opponent’s quarterback, ranking No. 111 with only seven sacks in six games.

As the experts say, it starts up front.

Over at USC, Coach Steve Sarkisian claimed after a wing-and-a-prayer win at Arizona his Trojans were only one Hail Mary play from being a top-five team.

He was right if he meant in the Pac-12.

Had the Trojans defenders prevented a Hail Mary against Arizona State they would be 5-1 but not in the national top five.

USC would still be explaining that loss at Boston College and playing footsie around the top 10 with Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas Christian.

What the Trojans would be is undefeated in the Pac-12 South, with Oregon not on the schedule until a possible matchup in the conference title game.

USC remains, warts and all, interesting. The Trojans are caught between the up-tempo promise of 105 plays against Fresno State and the 69 plays they ran against Arizona. The Wildcats ran more pass plays, 72, than USC ran in total.

Lack of depth, because of NCAA scholarship penalties, has limited what USC wanted to do. Take away the Fresno State anomaly and USC is averaging 75 plays per game, about 15 fewer than Baylor.

“I’m not naïve to the fact of what our numbers are,” Sarkisian this week on the Pac-12 coaches’ conference call. “I won’t let that be an excuse.”

•Is the Pac-12 already eliminated from the four-team playoff race?

No, that was last week’s hyperventilate story line after injury-depleted Oregon had the audacity to lose a home game against then-undefeated Arizona.

Oregon’s emphatic rebound victory against UCLA put the Ducks right back in the race. There is little doubt a one-loss Oregon would make the playoff.

Getting a two-loss Pac-12 team to the playoff, while not impossible, would be much tougher. People forget that two-loss Stanford, with a bad loss at Utah, finished fifth in last year’s final Bowl Championship Series standings.

We know there are currently six undefeated teams — and one of them doesn’t count because it’s Marshall.

Two undefeated teams are penciled-in for defeats because Notre Dame (6-0) plays at Florida State (6-0) on Saturday, and Mississippi State (6-0) and Mississippi (6-0) play on Nov. 29.

That guarantees a one-loss team will make the four-team playoff.

The Southeastern Conference West, which has four teams in the AP top seven, has masterfully worked meaningless preseason rankings to its advantage:

Mississippi State became the fastest team to go from unranked to No. 1. The Bulldogs were sent up based on three straight wins over top-10 teams. A closer look reveals that two of those schools, Texas A&M and Louisiana State, are no longer in the top 20, with four total losses by 71 total points.

Mississippi State rocketed to No. 1 based on a nice home win over Auburn.

•Is there a wild-card in the playoff scenario?

Oh, he’s wild. Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston’s never-ending saga has a chance to make selection committee members wish they had said no to this assignment and instead volunteered to run the dime toss at their local church fair.

Winston faces two scenarios that could threaten his playing status. The first is an inquiry into whether he took money for signing memorabilia. Prediction: He skates on this unless someone squeals or produces receipts.

Winston is also scheduled to appear at a student conduct disciplinary hearing over an alleged sexual assault in December 2012. Winston has not been criminally charged, but he could face honor code sanctions.

Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher said there was nothing to worry about.

“There is no victim,” Fisher declared this week, “because there was no crime.”

Anyway, it’s a big-game week and Fisher said we all need to be careful “before we ruin someone’s career.”

Actually, Winston seems to be doing a terrific job on his own.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com