Four-way tie for South crown possible if dominoes fall crazily

Clay Helton is on the hot seat at USC and four teams in the Pac-12 South could wind up with identical records at the top of the standings at the end of the season. The conference’s southern side enters the final two weeks in a jumble.

Here are the possible scenarios at the moment: Utah (7-3, 5-3 Pac-12) can capture the division’s berth in the conference championship game with a win Saturday in the rivalry game against Colorado in Boulder. But the Utes will need Arizona State to lose one of its last two games. The Utes finish the season with a nonconference game against BYU.

The Sun Devils (6-4, 4-3) have the most direct route to the title game, needing only to win both of their final games, at Oregon this Saturday and on the road against rival Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday.

And Arizona (5-5, 4-3) can still pull off an upset by winning its final two games, at Washington State on Saturday and in the rivalry game, but the Wildcats will also need Utah to lose to the Buffaloes.

That Utah-Colorado game will happen early Saturday, so the Wildcats will know by the time they take the field against the No. 8 Cougars that night if they still have a shot.

“We have to be mature enough and be focused enough — which we have been the last couple of weeks with the way we played — to focus on the task at hand, which is Washington State,” Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin said. “So if you’re worried about anything more than that, obviously that’s going to affect your play. We’ve still got a lot of things out in front of us, but in order to have that in front of us, we’ve got to play very well in Pullman, the way we’ve played the last couple of weeks.”

Mind-numbingly, it is possible for four teams to finish at 5-4 atop the conference.