THE FRONT ROW with Steve Cameron: U-Dub: In if they win!

Whenever you think college football can’t possibly get more screwed up...

You’re wrong.

This season’s chase for that artificial, four-team tournament to determine a national champion – unofficially known as the Alabama Invitational – is the messiest ever.

To sort things out even a little bit, you have to grasp Rule No. 1: Everything is about TV and big-city sponsorship money.

There’s no other reason for the suits who run college football to outsource conference championship games to places that often have nothing to do with the schools competing for that league’s trophy.

A Big Ten showdown set for...Indianapolis?

And here’s the bonus: Two of these four supposedly massive conference title spectaculars mean nothing at all in the race to reach the Final Four.

For instance, undefeated and top-ranked Alabama is playing in the SEC championship game, but with nothing at stake.

The Tide would have to get blown out – we’re talking mightily mauled - by a distinctly average Florida team to miss the national title scrap.

Don’t hold your breath on that one.

MEANWHILE, consensus No. 2 Ohio State isn’t even competing in the Big Ten championship game, which features Penn State against Wisconsin – a couple of two-loss teams.

Yet the Buckeyes are in The Dance. They’re not quite the same lock as ‘Bama – but pretty close.

The 14-team Big Ten is such a ball of yarn that Michigan, which finished third in its division, has beaten both finalists – and would be favored by Las Vegas odds makers against either one.

Trust me, all of this confusion is being studied endlessly over in Seattle.

Pac-12 teams don’t have much of a national following because of time zones and such, so you can understand if Washington fans – just a win over Colorado in the conference title game away from a 12-1 season – are more than a little nervous.

If a glamour team like Stanford or Southern Cal were 11-1, a win in the conference finale would be a certain ticket to Final Four.

But a mysterious bunch from the foggy Northwest, a team without a meaningful non-conference victory – and one that got stuffed at home by USC?

Washington would be better off playing anybody but Colorado in the title game. Not only are the Buffs (who are pretty damn good) considered outsiders in all this reckoning, there’s the fact that they lost 45-28 to Michigan.

Yes, it was early in the year. Yes, it was on the road.

Still...

If you harbor a bias against the West in general and the Pac-12 in particular, Colorado’s loss at Michigan would be a great place to start the argument that two Big Ten teams belong in the Final Four.

WE’RE assuming here that No. 3 Clemson will dust off a 9-3 Virginia Tech bunch in the ACC title game – thus leaving one spot open in the Big Dance bracket.

And even that’s not quite a cinch, either.

If you’re rooting for the old white guys in suits to tear out their hair, well...

By all means, root for a nightmare situation where Alabama and Clemson both lose, the 14-team Big Ten produces three relatively equal aspirants -- and undefeated Western Michigan SUES everybody for a hefty loss of post-season income.

I’d love it.

Meanwhile, though, I’ve been saving the fun news. All you local U-Dub boosters can relax.

Here’s what you want to hear, and it comes from a source I can’t divulge but who is ABSOLUTELY within the closed-door loop.

If the Huskies beat Colorado, they’re in.

Yep.

Escape the Buffs, and your prize is very likely a night out with some good ol’ boys from Alabama.

Enjoy!

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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press who has covered sports at all levels for more than three decades. Reach Steve at scameron@cdapress.com.