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 like 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 on Saturday night to clear the Nittany Lions out and make any one-loss BCS battle against the Big Ten 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 — The 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 hosts winless Washington, a sure-thing victory that will further drag the Trojans into Pacific 10 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 Bears visit Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 8, and maybe Notre Dame will be top-25 caliber when the Irish arrive on 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 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.

USC can always hope history repeats itself. Penn State started 9-0 in 1999 and was ranked No. 2 in the BCS when it lost three straight Big Ten games, starting with a one-point crusher against Minnesota.

Penn State, which has an open date this week, plays at Iowa on Nov. 8 before home games against Indiana and Michigan State.

Iowa might cause Penn State some concern. The Hawkeyes are 5-3 and have won two straight behind the power of running back Shonn Greene, who ran for 217 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Wisconsin on Oct. 18.

No. 3 Penn State picked up BCS ground on No. 2 Alabama, closing the gap to .0242. ... In the race for the one guaranteed major bowl berth among the non-BCS conference schools, Utah and Boise State held steady at No. 11 and No. 12. ... Florida State used a win against Virginia Tech to jump 10 spots, to No. 15.