I blame the dress. But the Buckeyes? No excuse.

Someone needs to take Japanese figure skaters Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano shopping. (Sarah Palin, where are you?) Ando slipped doing some relatively simple footwork during her Skate America short program Saturday night and I blame the dress.

She apparently was wearing the musty curtains someone found in her grandmother's attic. Ando is a former world champion! Someone call Vera Wang, quick. Nakano's blue/dark blue/purple-ish, heavy-looking dress, accompanied by gloves more appropriate for Elvira, wasn't much better.

However, leader Yu-Na Kim's dress was elegant, classy, gorgeously fitted and totally appropriate. And she had a mistake, too, but she's in first. Really, it's the dress.

So what was Ohio State's excuse for not participating in the game plan to get USC into the national title game? It wasn't the uniforms.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Miki Ando, attired in her unique costume, performs during the women's short program at Skate America on Saturday night. Credit: Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images