And down go the Buckeyes. With USC’s toppling of Ohio State, the conference is now wide open at the top. The battle to make the conference title game has widened and the window for an at-large has narrowed. Seven of the conference’s 16 teams currently have two losses, and one slip apiece from Indiana and Ohio State would launch all of those squads into the conference title discussion. With four weeks left of regular season college football, here’s where the Big Ten stands:

18. Michigan State

The Spartans were on bye this week.

17. Maryland

And Maryland remains one of the Big Ten’s two winless teams in heartbreaking fashion. The Terps had every opportunity to win on Saturday, but they came up just short against the Illini. They’ve got their best chance at a win this week against Purdue. If they can’t convert in West Lafayette, their odds of entering the win column suddenly look extremely thin.

16. Rutgers

AJ Suarce’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Jourdin Houston made the counting stats look like less of a disaster, but make no mistake, the Scarlet Knights played one of the worst offensive games you’ll ever see on Saturday. Rutgers has a relatively easy schedule to close the year, which will be used to evaluate and decide who they want to retain. . Who do you want to keep? Who can you keep? Who do you wish luck at their next stop?

15. Purdue

Those two wins were fun, weren’t they? The Boilermakers returned swiftly to the losing column, but as the calendar turns to November, they have plenty to build off of and a couple of opportunities to play the villain. Those opportunities start this Saturday as they take on winless Maryland with hopes of burying the Terrapins in the Boilermakers’ former basement home.

14. Penn State

After an 0-4 start to Big Ten play, the Nittany Lions finally stopped the skid with a 31-17 win over Purdue. The defense was dominant and the run game finally showed up. Matt Campbell’s first year has certainly been a disappointment, but at the end of the day, it’s still year one. Penn State has a weak schedule over the final four weeks of the year, and in those weeks, an opportunity to reach bowl eligibility and improve morale around the program heading into the offseason.

13. Washington

It’s too little, too late for a Husky team that thought it had playoff hopes at the beginning of the year, but Washington is finally starting to look like the team the nation expected in August, at least defensively. The Huskies thoroughly shut down the Huskers, and a heroic late-game drive from Demond Williams secured the comeback win for Washington. Washington’s offense needs to do more going forward, but at least the defense has found its footing.

12. Michigan

At this point, this season is all about The Game. Beat Ohio State and the rest of the year, while disappointing, is no worse than forgettable. Lose and you have to take a long look in the mirror and reevaluate your approach to roster construction. Arguably, they should be doing the latter anyway, but it at least stings less with a loss over the Buckeyes. In the meantime, the Wolverines get to play spoiler, with an opportunity to deny in-state rival Michigan State their first win of the season and chances to ruin the seasons of a pair of west coast foes in Oregon and UCLA.

11. Nebraska

Nothing ever changes. Well, maybe not nothing and maybe not never, but Nebraska football hasn’t changed in over a decade. Yet another brutal loss for the Huskers in which their offense collapses and their otherwise solid defense gives up a game-winning drive at the death. With a now recently-penned extension for Matt Rhule, the coaching won’t be changing any time soon, so where will the changes come from? Players? Roster building? Administration? Coordinators? It’s unclear, but what is clear is that something must change.

10. Illinois

Illinois seems to have found its footing with back-to-back wins now under the Illini’s belt. The big difference? Illinois has begun scoring in the second halves. Early in the season, the Illini offense slowed to a crawl after halftime. This Saturday, they scored a touchdown to open the fourth quarter and closed the game with a walk-off field goal. Suddenly, they’re 3-2 and back in the conference race.

9. Northwestern

The Wildcats held a 20-6 lead late in the first half and led entering the fourth quarter, but they ultimately lost to Oregon on Saturday, ending their hopes of an at-large College Football Playoff bid. With head-to-head losses to two other teams fighting for a title game appearance, their path to a conference championship is also narrow. The CFP is all but off the table, however, Northwestern continues to be a tough out for anyone in the Big Ten.

8. Oregon

The Dylan Raiola rollercoaster continues. It seems like the former Cornhusker oscillates weekly between excellent and horrendous football.This week, he led Oregon to a 34-26 victory over Northwestern. With Ohio State’s loss last week, Oregon’s College Football playoff hopes have been revived with the possibility of a 2-loss team making the Big Ten title game and winning the conference’s auto-bid, and the Ducks’ schedule eases up after this week’s trip to Columbus. Saturday will determine the fate of Oregon’s season.

7. Minnesota

Had Minnesota been able to go into Bloomington and beat Indiana, this entire power ranking would be a different conversation. However, they fell in overtime and are now 5-3. They now get the opportunity to host UCLA and have a chance to spoil the Bruins undefeated year.

6. Wisconsin

That was ugly. That’s just about all there is to say about Wisconsin’s loss to Iowa on Saturday. They failed to show up against the Hawkeyes and got quickly sent back to their buses. With 3 should-be wins before a Rivalry Week battle with Minnesota, Wisconsin’s fate now lies in the hands of Indiana and Ohio State, who could put the Badgers back in the hunt for a title game appearance with losses.

5. USC

After an ugly loss to Wisconsin the week prior, the Trojans kept themselves alive with a gutsy win over Ohio State. The offense returned to its usual dominance, while the defense took advantage of a Buckeye team trying to find a new identity without Julian Sayin. With a bye this week, the Trojans now prepare for a grueling final stretch which will match them up against two top ten opponents in Indiana and UCLA. USC must win out to make the playoff, but three top ten wins will almost certainly get the team across the finish line. All that’s left is to wait and see if they’ll execute.

4. Iowa

Make it back-to-back shutouts over the Badgers for Iowa football. After a shocking loss to Minnesota, the Hawkeyes kept their season alive with a dominant win over Wisconsin. Iowa has arguably its toughest game left on the schedule this weekend when it travels to the Windy City for a bout with Northwestern, but the Hawkeyes remain in position to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

3. Ohio State

The offense was ugly and inefficient in Ohio State’s first game without starting quarterback Julian Sayin. That wasn’t surprising. The schedule doesn’t get easier for Ohio State to close the season, though, against top-half Big Ten teams in Oregon, Nebraska and Northwestern to lead up to rival Michigan, who’s always a threat in The Game. Ohio State may need to go undefeated in that stretch to hold on to a playoff spot, and the Buckeyes certainly can’t afford to lose two. With a scrappy and inconsistent Oregon team on the schedule this Saturday, the Buckeyes will need to figure things out offensively to keep their season afloat.

2. Indiana

On one hand, Indiana keeps surviving. There might not be a single team in the country better at winning close games than the Hoosiers. On the other hand, they keep letting worse teams stick around, and that mercy will be punished by better competition. A team that considers itself a national title contender shouldn’t be going to overtime against Minnesota and Michigan in back-to-back weeks. At the end of the day, the Hoosiers take care of business, but their methods leave them without an ounce of margin for error, and that will come back to bite them at some point.

1. UCLA

The UCLA Bruins are 8-0. They’ve had a relatively weak schedule, including their most recent win over Nevada, but at the end of the day they win football games, and they’ve done so even more convincingly than the Hoosiers this year. How far can UCLA carry this momentum?