Miami isn't out of the woods just yet. (College Football: Insider).

Everybody seems to be writing Miami into the national title game. Well, I'm not ready to do that. Syracuse, which Miami faces Saturday in the Carrier Dome, is going to be a much tougher out than most people realize. The Orangemen see this as an opportunity to salvage their season. Plus, Miami has been burned before when it has gone into the dome in chest-thumping mode. The Hurricanes had better be careful.

But if they do win out and go to the Fiesta Bowl, they'll hold the cards against Ohio State. That's not meant as an assessment of the teams' talent, either. (Let me admit this to all of you Buckeyes fans who have let me have it since last week's column: Your team is better than I gave it credit for. It doesn't dominate opponents as you'd expect a championship-caliber team to, but coach Jim Tressel is a master at game management and will keep the Buckeyes in any game.)

Miami would have a distinct advantage over OSU because the Buckeyes would be playing for the first time in 41 days. Tressel told his kids after their giant Michigan win to forget about football for a couple of weeks; meanwhile, Miami will keep playing through December 7, as will Oklahoma, the likeliest opponent for Ohio State should Miami lose in the next two weeks. It'll be harder for the Buckeyes to turn the lights back on. There's definitely such a thing as too long a layoff.

Just take a breath and blow. How closely were you looking at your television screen when Ohio State scored the touchdown on that option play to beat Michigan? I don't know about you, but I can't believe a flag wasn't thrown--linemen were jumping all over the place. If it wasn't a false start by the offense, it had to be offside against the defense. It had to be something!

I didn't watch a Big Ten game of any importance this season that wasn't marred by sloppy, shabby officiating. League commissioner Jim Delaney must look at game film every week and shudder.

 
TSN POWER POLL 
 
The TSN Power Poll is determined by TSN writers and editors. 
 
Rk.   Team (last week)       W-L    Last week 
 
 1.   Miami (1)              10-0   W, 28-21 vs. Pittsburgh 
 2.   Ohio State (2)         13-0   W, 14-9 vs. Michigan 
 3.   Oklahoma (3)           10-1   W, 60-15 vs. Texas Tech 
 4.   Iowa (5)               11-1   Idle 
 5.   Georgia (6)            10-1   Idle 
 6.   USC (7)                9-2    W, 52-21 at UCLA 
 7.   Kansas State (9)       10-2   W, 38-0 at Missouri 
 8.   Notre Dame (10)        10-1   W, 42-0 vs. Rutgers 
 9.   Washington State (4)   9-2    L, 29-26 (30T) vs. Washington 
10.   Texas (11)             9-2    Idle 
11.   Penn State (15)        9-3    W, 61-7 vs. Michigan State 
12.   Colorado (13)          8-3    Idle 
13.   Alabama (8)            9-3    L, 17-7 vs. Auburn 
14.   Michigan (12)          9-3    L, 14-9 at Ohio State 
15.   Florida (19)           8-3  ...