Timmy Chang has been on the job for nearly six months and remains undefeated as University of Hawaii head football coach.

Yes, that can be construed as just playing with words since we’re in the middle of July. No one in college football has played a down since January, so Chang has yet to win anything either, right?

Wrong.

With his positivity and relentless energy, Chang has won the hearts and at least some of the minds of Warrior Nation — and its most important subset, “Da Braddahhood,” the players … and potential future players. Sure, that’s what the Saint Louis Crusaders, the guys from Chang’s high school alma mater, like to call themselves, too. But no one seems to be in a hurry to sue for copyright infringement.

UH opens its season Aug. 27 at home against Vanderbilt. The fact that the Commodores (2-10 and winless in conference last year) are 61⁄2-point road favorites against a program that has received bowl game invitations the past four seasons tells you everything you need to know about the status of the SEC compared to the Mountain West … or any of the other minor league college football conferences.

Let’s face reality. At this moment, there are three-and-a-half football conferences above the rest. Assuming Clemson continues to rebound from its horrific 2021 start, the ACC, Big 12, Big 10 and SEC comprise a Power Four.

At the risk of coming across as a conspiracy theorist, I wonder if there ever really was a Power Five. I can’t be the only one who wondered why there were (are) just four football championship playoff berths for five theoretically equal “power” conferences.

After that first year of the playoff with Oregon in the championship game, the Pac-12 steadily declined in status. Just one other team, Washington in 2016, has made it to the CFP.

Then, last month came the previously unthinkable, the defection of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten. And after Notre Dame decides what it’s going to do, more of the best Pac-12 programs could be heading east.

With the transfer portal in play, the Pac-12 could become what the Pacific Coast League was in baseball long ago, before big league teams moved west. The PCL was a very good minor league where Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams played because they were from California, until the brass in New York and Boston saw how great they were and snatched ’em.

Hey, Hawaii had a team in the PCL, so maybe the Warriors can get into the Pac-whatever-it-ends-up-as.

That, of course, is not meant to be taken seriously. I think it’s an example of what people who like to argue about politics call “false equivalency.” Plus, the Hawaii Islanders had a stadium.

Regardless of any of that, yes, of course UH’s leadership must make it known it wants in, yesterday, actually … if for no other reason than to not be left blindsided like when the WAC broke apart in the 1990s. Even if the Pac ends up being a former power conference, membership would be better than being left in what amounts to a Molehill West after it’s raided.

UH is near the back of a long line, but that doesn’t stop folks from designing half-baked scenarios that put Hawaii in the Pac.

One claims UH is a good fit because it is “adjacent” to the west coast. That’s kind of like saying Mars is adjacent to Earth. Someone needs to look at a globe, instead of those maps of the U.S. with an inset of Hawaii that puts the islands about where Tijuana or Juarez is.

Someone else envisions a Pac-16 that includes Hawaii and Rice but neither of the Nevada schools. I don’t see how this happens, considering the vast logistical challenges UH faces. While the Hawaii exemption and unique time zone for TV are pluses, do they really trump Vegas and Reno?

Anything’s possible, I suppose. It’s not like Hawaii and Rice were never in the same conference before.

It’s too bad Hawaii didn’t somehow magically make it into the REAL Pac-12. UH would have had a much better chance of keeping the state’s best football players home for college … of course, this would be contingent on them believing that the Pac-12 champions could get it into the College Football Playoff, and that the Warriors could contend for that conference championship.

Let’s close today with reality — something that is quite achievable, and would be quite good for UH:

If Timmy Chang is still undefeated after his first game as head coach next month, Hawaii will have a win against a team from the college football big leagues. And, even if it’s a cellar-dweller like Vandy, those are more important now than ever before.