USC football will have to play waiting game before its fate is sealed

This time, there won’t be any peeking.

The USC players and coaches won’t be checking their cellphones in the locker room before kickoff or glancing at the Coliseum scoreboard during the game.

That’s because their fate will not be sealed until later in the day, well after they finish playing Notre Dame.

It makes sense that, in a madly unpredictable season, it will take a full two days of football to sort out which teams reach the Pac-12 Conference title game.

The machinations begin with Washington versus Washington State on Friday and continue through a late-afternoon matchup between Utah and Colorado on Saturday.

Various combinations of four teams — USC, Colorado, Washington and Washington State — could end up in the conference championship.

And the resurgent Trojans, left for dead two months ago, now have two potential routes to the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2.

“We were able to stay alive,” Coach Clay Helton said.

Last summer, the media — for whatever they’re worth — predicted Stanford and UCLA would meet for the conference title on Dec. 2. Things turned out differently.

The wheels soon came off the Bruins’ wagon and Stanford hit a major speed bump, dropping three of four at midseason, which opened the door for Washington and a couple of upstarts in Washington State and Colorado.

USC sneaked back into the picture with a late winning streak and some help from disappointing Oregon, which upset Utah on Saturday in a game that had the Trojans checking the score before they played UCLA.

Now it gets even more complicated, so pay attention.

If Colorado loses to Utah, the Trojans clinch the Pac-12’s South Division on a tiebreaker and earn a chance to play for Pasadena.

Even with a Colorado victory, they have hope.

Washington could win out, defeating Washington State and then Colorado in the title game. That could lift the Huskies into the College Football Playoff.

If so, USC might become the Rose Bowl replacement if it has the same number of overall losses as Colorado — three — and rises higher in the CFP ranking because of its head-to-head win over the Buffaloes in early October.

Everything could change as the No. 13 Trojans watch from home. That’s the kind of season it has been — and not just in the Pac-12.

Among the Power Five, only the Southeastern Conference can claim anything resembling predictability with No. 1 Alabama and No. 23 Florida clinching spots in the title game regardless of what happens next weekend.

The Big 12, which doesn’t have a title game, must wait until No. 9 Oklahoma plays No. 11 Oklahoma State before crowning a champion. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Virginia Tech must defeat Virginia for a title meeting with No. 4 Clemson.

And the Big Ten still has a host of contenders — including No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan, No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 8 Penn State — vying for its championship.

Coach Urban Meyer would prefer if his Ohio State team ignored the potential scenarios, saying: “They don’t want to hear it from us but they don’t live in a cocoon either, so they hear it from the media, ESPN, and all that.”

Pac-12 coaches seem resigned to the notion that people are already doing the math in their heads.

“Everybody knows it’s a big game,” Washington Coach Chris Petersen said of the Apple Cup rivalry this weekend. “We’ve got two really good teams with good records and a lot to play for.”

At No. 6 in the CFP ranking, the Huskies have a chance to climb a little higher with No. 5 Louisville’s upset loss. No. 22 Washington State is looking to rebound from losing to No. 10 Colorado in the battle of the Cinderellas.

Colorado is trying to wipe away years of misery.

More than a decade has passed since the Buffaloes’ last winning season. At 9-2, the players sense an opportunity to change their program’s trajectory.

“We’ve just been through hell and back so many times that, now we’re in this position, we know we never want to go back to where we were before,” center Alex Kelley said. “Just that fear in the back of our minds keeps us moving forward.”

There is one more Pac-12 team in the mix, with No. 12 Utah still harboring a chance to make the Rose Bowl as a replacement team if Washington defeats USC in the conference championship.

Before the Trojans get to that point, they would like to take care of business against the Irish. Then they can turn their attention to a bigger prize.

No peeking, just some serious watching and rooting. As Helton put it: “We’ll need a little help.”

david.wharton@latimes.com

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