ANN ARBOR -- Losses over the weekend by Ohio State and Penn State have thrown the Big Ten East upside down.

The Buckeyes and Michigan State are currently in a first-place tie with 5-1 conference records, setting up a pivotal showdown for first place Saturday in Columbus (noon, FOX).

Now, what does that mean for Michigan? Well, with a 4-2 Big Ten record, the Wolverines are still alive.

First, we'll start with the Big Ten East standings through 9 games:

Ohio State: 7-2, 5-1 Big Ten

Michigan State: 7-2, 5-1 Big Ten

Penn State: 7-2, 4-2 Big Ten

Michigan: 7-2, 4-2 Big Ten

Rutgers: 4-5, 3-3 Big Ten

Maryland: 4-5, 2-4 Big Ten

Indiana: 3-6, 0-6 Big Ten

Pay no attention to overall records, they mean nothing at this point. Since each team is scheduled to play 9 conference games, and the division winner determined by conference record, then we can mathematically eliminate Indiana. Maryland would have to win out and need nearly everyone ahead of it to lose, which is unlikely. Same with Rutgers.

That makes this a race between the top four teams: OSU, MSU, PSU and Michigan. Big Ten tiebreaker rules, which you can read in their entirety here, state any tie between two teams is broken by the winner of that season's head-to-head matchup. Michigan, of course, has losses to Michigan State and Penn State.

So, what needs to happen? Here's Michigan's best (and, really, only) avenue to the Big Ten title game Dec. 2 in Indianapolis:

1. Win out

That means road wins this Saturday at Maryland, next week at Wisconsin and Nov. 25 against Ohio State, which would be the program's first over the Buckeyes since 2011. A tall task, but certainly not out of the question.

2. OSU win

It might be hard, but a Buckeyes win over Michigan State on Saturday would create a full-game separation between the teams in the standings. That carves out a path for Michigan to win out and jump OSU with a head-to-head tiebreaker.

3. Help from others

For that game against OSU to mean anything, the Wolverines are going to need help elsewhere, too. They would lose any potential three or four-game tiebreaker with OSU, PSU and MSU (record vs. tied teams), so Michigan State and Penn State both would have to lose a third conference game. MSU closes the season vs. Maryland and at Rutgers, while PSU hosts Rutgers, Nebraska and plays at Maryland.

Any deviation from this roadmap, be it a Michigan loss Saturday at Maryland (3:30 p.m., BTN) or a Spartans upset of the Buckeyes, would tighten things even more.

And given Michigan's two prior loses to teams in the same hunt, it would make things darn near impossible.