With the calendar about to turn to the new year, the true equalizer awaits in women's college basketball: conference play. There's a vast range in how difficult women's basketball programs scheduled their nonconference slates.

Here are the USA TODAY Sports Network's Big Ten women's basketball power rankings ahead of conference play resuming.

College basketball seasons now involve conference games in early December. That wasn't generally the case 20 years ago, when conferences were smaller. USC women's basketball beat Oregon in a conference game in early December.