Left for dead weeks ago, Lincoln Riley and USC just delivered the result that changes everything. The Trojans knocked off No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday night in what Yahoo Sports called their biggest Big Ten win yet — a complete performance that reshuffles both the conference race and the College Football Playoff picture.

Ohio State played without star quarterback Julian Sayin, sidelined by the shoulder injury he suffered against Indiana. But the result was less about who the Buckeyes were missing than what USC imposed: a complete victory, in the assessment of The Sporting News, on a night the Trojans needed exactly that.

The win rewrites the conversation around Riley, whose seat had grown hot enough that some considered him finished at USC. Instead, the Trojans are suddenly back in the CFP hunt, Ohio State's path to the Big Ten title game has real competition, and November in the conference just became considerably more chaotic.