Week nine of the college football season is in the books. Soon, we’ll only be one month out from Selection Sunday, but there’s a lot of exciting football left to be played between now and then. Here’s how everything stacked up after an eventful Saturday for college football.

Winner: Chaos in college football

To those college football fans out there who are getting tired of the same two teams dominating and the playoff picture constantly being certain, rejoice! This year’s College Football Playoff hunt is wide open. Just to demonstrate how tight things are at the top, take a look at this week’s AP Top 25 Poll. Louisiana State University jumped into the top spot this week, but No. 2 Alabama is only two points behind the Tigers (8-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) and No. 3 Ohio State is only six points behind the Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC). For those of you who are less familiar with how the AP Poll works, take my word for it. That’s a razor-thin margin. Look further down the poll, though, and you’ll see that as many as 12 teams are still alive for a playoff spot, from the usual suspects like No. 4 Clemson and No. 8 Georgia to more surprising teams like No. 9 Utah and No. 13 Minnesota. A lot of these teams play each other in the next month, too. Buckle up, folks; it’s about to get good.

Loser: Big 12

That said, if there’s one conference whose playoff hopes took a hit this week, it’s the Big 12. The most prominent game that caused this was No. 5 Oklahoma’s loss to Kansas State, in which the Wildcats (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) put the Sooners (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) into a deep, second-half hole from which the latter could never overcome. In addition to that, however, is the fall of Texas. The Longhorns (5-3, 3-2 Big 12) have lost two of their last three games, most recently to mediocre Texas Christian University, and their one win in that span was a squeaker against Kansas. As a result, they’ve dropped out of the AP Top 25 entirely, and deservedly so. For a while, the Pac-12 was universally regarded as the worst Power-Five conference, but now I think the Big 12 may have taken over that mantle.

Winner: Jim Harbaugh

One of the biggest knocks on Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was that he could never win the big games. Whether that is true or not is, of course, still up in the air, but he and his defenders now have a large piece of ammo to make their case. No. 14 Michigan dominated their rival, No. 16 Notre Dame, on Saturday night. It was a rainy game that could have messed with the poise of any collegiate team, but the Wolverines (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) kept their cool and went to their ground-and-pound game, which the Irish had no answer for. A Big Ten title and College Football Playoff spot are probably out of reach for the Wolverines this season, but a program in much need of a huge win got one.

Loser: Nebraska

Scott Frost’s tenure as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers is not going as planned. Their loss to Indiana at home this past week underscores the shaky season that the Huskers (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) are having. Nebraska barely slipped by Illinois, barely took down a one-win Northwestern team and predictably got blown out by both Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) and Minnesota (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten). With No. 18 Wisconsin and No. 19 Iowa still on Nebraska’s remaining schedule, the Huskers face a real possibility that they might miss out on bowl season for the third year in a row.

Honorable Mention: Saturday Night Football on ABC

For a while, the prospects for week 10’s edition of Saturday Night Football on ABC looked bleak. Faced with a choice of Miami (FL) at Florida State or Southern Methodist University (SMU) at Memphis, ABC went with the latter, as SMU was ranked 16th at the time and the game could have major ramifications for the New Year’s Six bowls. It almost turned into a disaster, as both the Mustangs (8-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) and the Tigers (7-1, 3-1 AAC) were almost upset on the road. SMU survived a late rally by Houston, who is having a down year, to win by three points, while Memphis only won its game last week because of a missed 29-yard field goal by Tulsa as time expired. Luckily for ABC, both teams survived, and it now has two AP Top 25 teams duking it out in its prime time slot this weekend.