USC loses traction on BCS highway

Nothing seemingly changed in the second Bowl Championship Series standings, released Sunday afternoon by Fox with the usual drum roll and kazoo toot.

Texas, Alabama, Penn State and Oklahoma remained 1-2-3-4 with USC rounding out the Fave Five.

Funny, though, it felt as if the whole game changed for USC.

The Trojans are now looking down a path to the national title game that may require the football equivalent of drawing an inside straight in poker.

USC needed Ohio State to beat No. 3 Penn State in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday night to clear the Nittany Lions out and make any one-loss BCS battle against the Big Ten Conference to be against the Buckeyes -- a team USC defeated by 32 points in September.

The road to South Florida just hit a few speed bumps.

Texas stayed on top in the BCS standings with an average of .9981, followed by Alabama (.9499), Penn State (.9257) and Oklahoma (.8270).

USC (.7822) is hanging in there, but the ground beneath the Trojans is moving.

USC's 17-10 desert defeat of Arizona in Tucson did not impress the pollsters as the Trojans lost ground in all three leading indexes -- Associated Press, USA Today coaches' and Harris.

USC fell one spot to No. 7 in the AP, two positions in the coaches' poll to No. 6, and two spots, to No. 7, in Harris.

USC countered by moving up four spots, to No. 6, in the BCS computers.

It seems almost a cinch, though, that the Florida-Georgia winner this week will jump USC next week.

Meanwhile, USC plays host to winless Washington, a sure-thing victory that will further drag the Trojans into Pacific 10 Conference purgatory. Two weeks ago, USC was projected to open at No. 4 in the first BCS standings but debuted at No. 5 after a 69-0 win at woeful Washington State.

What victory left on the schedule, assuming USC can win its remaining games, is going to give the Trojans traction?

Maybe California will be ranked when the Golden Bears visit the Coliseum on Nov. 8, and maybe Notre Dame will be top-25 caliber when the Irish arrive Nov. 29.

If Penn State finishes 12-0, though, that's one title-game spot USC can't grab.

USC also has no chance against an undefeated team from the Big 12 Conference or Southeastern Conference, and maybe no chance against a one-loss champion from those leagues.

The Trojans may be only three BCS spots from the No. 2 position required to earn a title-game trip to South Florida, but the gap feels larger than that.