Conference play is in full swing for Big Ten women’s basketball, with elite matchups on the docket all throughout each week.

Minnesota and Nebraska are on the rise, and the teams at the top haven’t missed a beat.

Here are the latest USA TODAY Sports Network Big Ten women’s basketball power rankings. Rankings are reflective of games through Jan. 8.

1. UCLA (16-0)

Previously: No. 1

What to know: The Bruins keep rolling right along, having snagged road wins at Indiana and Purdue. UCLA won’t face another nationally ranked team until Jan. 26.

2. USC (15-1)

Previously: No. 2

What to know: The Trojans completed a successful East Coast swing with road wins over Rutgers and Maryland. USC doesn’t have another ranked matchup as of now until Feb. 2.

3. Ohio State (15-0)

Previously: No. 4

What to know: Wednesday’s big road win at Michigan adds significant substance to Ohio State’s hot start. The Buckeyes don’t have another ranked matchup until Jan. 23.

4. Maryland (14-1)

Previously: No. 3

What to know: Wednesday’s home loss to USC was offset some by wins over Rutgers and Iowa since the last rankings. A daunting stretch is upcoming, though, with Maryland set to face three top-10 teams between Jan. 20 and Jan. 26.

5. Minnesota (16-1)

Previously: No. 8

What to know: There are still strength-of-schedule questions, especially considering Minnesota dropped its only ranked matchup so far. But the Golden Gophers continue ripping off wins to balance things out. A Tuesday trek to Maryland will put Minnesota under the microscope.

6. Michigan State (12-3)

Previously: No. 5

What to know: Wednesday’s road loss at Nebraska marked Michigan State’s third loss in its last four games. The Spartans will look to get back on track Sunday versus Washington.

7. Iowa (12-3)

Previously: No. 6

What to know: The home stumble against Maryland was a disappointing one, especially considering many foes don’t escape Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a victory. Looking at current rankings, the Hawkeyes won’t face another top-25 team until Feb. 2. Iowa needs to stack wins until then.

8. Nebraska (12-4)

Previously: No. 10

What to know: The Cornhuskers needed their 2-0 showing since the last poll, after dropping three straight ranked matchups in a 10-day span. Road trips to Rutgers and Iowa are upcoming.

9. Indiana (11-4)

Previously: No. 7

What to know: The Hoosiers gave it a whirl against No. 1 UCLA, but Indiana couldn’t pull out the home upset last weekend. After winning at Northwestern on Wednesday, the Hoosiers have a tricky trip to Iowa on Sunday.

10. Michigan (10-5)

Previously: No. 9

What to know: The Wolverines have suddenly dropped three straight after Wednesday’s upset bid at Ohio State fell short. Michigan has a favorable matchup Saturday at Purdue to get back on schedule.

11. Washington (12-4)

Previously: No. 11

What to know: The Huskies have won five straight but are currently set to face four ranked teams in their next six games.

12. Illinois (11-4)

Previously: No. 12

What to know: The Fighting Illini need some positive momentum after consecutive losses to Washington and Minnesota.

13. Oregon (11-4)

Previously: No. 13

What to know: An upcoming East Coast road swing offers Oregon a chance to climb in the coming days.

14. Wisconsin (10-6)

Previously: No. 14

What to know: Wisconsin is on a four-game losing streak after its West Coast trip to Oregon and Washington produced two losses. Things don’t get any easier with upcoming games against Maryland and Ohio State.

15. Penn State (9-6)

Previously: No. 15

What to know: Already on a four-game losing streak, the path gets even tougher for Penn State with road trips to USC and UCLA lurking.

16. Rutgers (8-8)

Previously: No. 16

What to know: The Scarlet Knights will host Nebraska on Sunday, trying to snap a four-game losing streak.

17. Purdue (7-8)

Previously: No. 17

What to know: Purdue enters Saturday’s game against Michigan on a three-game losing streak.

18. Northwestern (7-9)

Previously: No. 18

What to know: Northwestern will enter its West Coast swing to UCLA and USC on a four-game losing streak.

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.

LINCOLN — The fate of some conservative priorities, such as changing how Nebraska allocates its votes for president or adding a “women’s bill of rights” to state law, could depend on whether Republicans succeed this week in making Democrats a minority on every legislative committee but one.

The leading point of contention Wednesday revolved around the makeup of the eight-member Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. By the end of the first day of the session, Government was set to have five Democrats and three Republicans, including its chair.

The group deciding is the Legislature’s 13-member Committee on Committees, which includes a chair and four representatives each from three legislative “caucuses,” which roughly mirror the state’s three congressional districts to reflect statewide representation.

“Me personally, and I’m one vote, I’m not representing any caucus in this,” State Sen. Christy Armendariz of Omaha, the Committee on Committees chair, said. “I think that the committee assignments should be representative of the makeup of the entire state.”

‘They’ve chosen their party’

While the Legislature is officially nonpartisan, Armendariz, a first-time member of the committee, said all 13 members know what is going on: a fight over partisan balance, which impacts all Nebraskans.  

The Committee on Committees consists of eight Republicans, four Democrats and one nonpartisan independent. There are 33 Republicans in the Legislature, 15 Democrats and one nonpartisan progressive.

“They’ve chosen their party,” Armendariz said of Nebraska voters. “I don’t think it’s fair to exclude anybody in the state from representation on the committee.”

First day of 2025 Nebraska Legislature underscores conservative stronghold

The Committee on Committees met after Republicans in the Legislature swept leadership positions for all but one committee. They left the Urban Affairs Committee in the hands of State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, a Democrat who chaired the committee the past two years.

Under a set of unofficial, tentative placements discussed Wednesday evening, Republicans would maintain membership leads on all but the Government Committee and Urban Affairs Committee, which would still become more conservative.

Conservatives would grow their numbers on the previously deadlocked Judiciary Committee as well as on the Business and Labor, Health and Human Services and Natural Resources Committees.

All other daily committees will be led by Republicans, as will the Rules Committee and Executive Board.

‘This was a fantasy’

Wednesday’s Committee on Committees meeting began with representatives from the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts having already penciled in where the members of their caucuses should be placed on each of the daily committees. Those caucus representatives filled in names of where senators from the 2nd Congressional District might fall, which they defended as merely “placeholders.” 

The 2nd District Caucus, which is led by three Democrats and one independent, immediately rejected that suggestion and said the other caucuses had overstepped.

State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, the progressive independent who has served on the Committee on Committees before, described the behavior as unprecedented.

“This was a fantasy for y’all, but that’s not the reality that we were ever going to be working in,” she said.

State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte responded: “We understand that. I think we just, truly, we’re just trying to figure out what we can live with, in terms of how we want to end up.”

Hunt told Republicans on the committee to ask themselves, “Have you won enough?” The question came after the 2nd District Caucus agreed to swap freshman Omaha State Sens. Dunixi Guereca, a Democrat, and Bob Andersen, a Republican, on the Government Committee.

If accepted, the committee then would be evenly split between progressives and conservatives, 4-4, which State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, the newly elected chair, said would be better. She did not return a call after the meeting requesting further comment.

A line in the sand

Other conservatives drew lines in the sand seeking to shift the Government Committee to leaning Republican 5-3, as they had in the framework put forward by senators from the 1st and 3rd District Caucuses.

Bills stuck in a deadlocked committee can still be moved to the full Legislature with 25 votes. If the Government Committee stayed 5-3 for Democrats, and the majority killed a bill they didn’t like, the introducer could still advance the bill to the floor with 30 votes from the full Legislature.

Such bills would likely be filibustered, meaning they would need 33 votes to pass, anyway.

“I don’t see any losers on this sheet,” Hunt said of the initial committee assignments. “If you take the Government [Committee] deal — I know you want a majority, that’s what this is about, but we’re not going to get there. And I don’t think that’s a loss.”

Hunt and the 2nd District Caucus moved to advance the report with the 4-4 Government Committee. The motion failed 7-6.

Sanders voted with the 2nd District Caucus and Democratic State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln to accept the evenly balanced committee and advance the amended report.

‘An attack on the nonpartisan Unicameral’

Part of the contention comes two days after the 2nd District Caucus met in Omaha and progressives secured all four spots on the Committee on Committees, as well as two coveted spots on the Executive Board, which manages the day-to-day operations of the legislative branch. (The full 2nd District Caucus consists of eight Democrats, eight Republicans and one progressive independent.)

That meant kicking off Republican State Sens. Brad von Gillern of Omaha from the Committee on Committees and Merv Riepe of Ralston from the Executive Board. 

Von Gillern called the move “the most intentionally partisan thing I’ve experienced since I was sworn in two years ago” and “an attack on the nonpartisan Unicameral Legislature by those who typically wave that flag harder than anyone else.”

He said the decision doesn’t set a “constructive tone” ahead of conversations like winner-take-all when progressives make “such a partisan act.”

“Votes on important issues often fall on party line, but this was not issue-driven and did nothing to improve their vote count on the overall Committee on Committees,” von Gillern said in a text. “There will still be a Republican majority there. There is no discernible strategy that I can see.”

State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha, who got a spot on both the Executive Board and Committee on Committees, said: “That’s where the votes landed.”

A cautionary tale

At one point, Jacobson suggested that a path forward might include the 2nd District senators accepting the pre-slated committee assignments from the 1st and 3rd District Caucuses.

Clerk of the Legislature Brandon Metzler cautioned that if the committee chose to cross that threshold, “you’re not coming back.”

“I think that’s dangerous for not only CD 2, but I think it’s dangerous for CD 3, from an urban-rural split,” Metzler said. “The caucus system is inherently political. We have never had a choice made for a caucus that they were not, as a caucus, on board with. But that’s the determination of this committee to decide.”

Factors in committee assignments

State Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus said there are multiple factors to crafting committee assignments, such as:

• Incumbency — Not kicking senators off of committees they most recently served on.
• Senator preference — Lawmakers typically provide first and second choice for assignments.
• Caucus balance — The Committee on Committees usually weighs this by giving each caucus a set number of seats on a committee, based on who the chair is and proceeding through the caucuses in order after (such as 1-2-3).

Moser said there is another important consideration: partisan balance.

Hunt asked him: “Should all committees be 2:1, Republican to Democrat?”

“That’s what the average of — since there’s 66% Republicans and 33% Democrats — that’s about what it should reflect on all the committees,” Moser responded.

A path forward?

Lawmakers said if the Omaha-area lawmakers wouldn’t budge, they could find other solutions, which Jacobson and Moser said would require more deliberation.

“If the Second District is locked in where they’re at, then there may be some actions in response that other caucuses make,” Moser said. “Maybe they’re not going to be pleasant, but we’re going to think about that overnight, talk about it a little bit and come back tomorrow.”

Asked whether that meant some 1st or 3rd District Caucus members might lose committee positions they previously held, or not get their top preferences, Armendariz said that’s up to the districts.

“They get to make their own decisions,” Armendariz said. “I would never want to get in the middle of that, if that’s what they choose to do.”

Committee assignments will ultimately be kicked out to the full Legislature in a preliminary report. The Legislature would then vote to accept, or reject, the placements after the Committee on Committees advances a final report.

However, preliminary reports often become final committee placements.

The Committee on Committees reconvenes shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – State senators convened at the capitol on Wednesday to get the 109th Legislative Session under way.

With a number of new faces to get acquainted with in addition to swearing in all the state senators for a new term, there was only one piece of legislation introduced on Day 1: Resolution LR1 was filed to “recognize, honor, and thank Former President Carter for his service to the United States of America and the people of the world.”

The other order of business was the election of committee chairs.

On Thursday, things will get underway in earnest as senators begin with the first round of bill introductions, giving Nebraskans a first look at what lawmakers will consider debating in the coming weeks.

A proposal involving women’s college athletics is expected to come together: Gov. Jim Pillen will address the Legislature on Thursday morning alongside university athletes on a proposal he requested.

The governor will return to the Unicameral next week for his State of the State address, when he will share his priorities for the session.

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