Out-of-conference games are typically scheduled several years in advance. Washington scheduled Rutgers while Rutgers was having a nice run and the future looked pretty bright for them.
Don’t forget that the Pac-12 plays nine conference games, the SEC eight. So SEC teams need to schedule two P5 out-of-conference games to match the total of P5 schools that the Pac-12 teams typically play.
And no dobut an extra Pac 12 league game is tougher than the cup cakes scheduled by SEC.