We didn’t need rankings to tell us this, but the ASU football team was named one of the five biggest flops in college football this week. Also, light is shed on the story behind Omar Bolden’s USC-dissing ballcap switcheroo and the ASU women’s hoops team gets previewed.

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They began the season ranked in the top 20 nationally. They’re now nowhere near the rankings and fighting for their postseason lives.

Those facts landed our Sun Devils on the Sporting News list of the five biggest flops of the college football season along with Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Hey, it could be worse. We could be firing our coaches in midseason like Clemson, which canned Tommy Bowden after nearly 10 years as head coach, and Auburn, which sacked offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.

Then again, we doubt some Echo from the Buttes readers would mind seeing ASU sack offensive coordinator Rich Olsen.

At least, Sporting News left us with a glimmer of hope stating, “Despite the flaws, ASU came within a whisker of a BCS berth last year. USC will always be a beast, but the Sun Devils will return to the conference’s top 3 by next season.”

Speaking of ASU football, the L.A. Times ran an interesting feature last week that shed some light on Omar Bolden’s infamous ballcap switcheroo back on signing day.

Apparently, USC fans weren’t terribly happy with the gesture, and Bolden wasn’t terribly happy with being slighted by his hometown team. (If you’re not familiar with the ballcap switcheroo in question, we’ve posted the video below.)

In other links, women’s hoops blog They’re Playing Basketball offered up a quick preview of the 2008-09 Sun Devils and Wildcats this week. They seem to be high on Charli Turner Thorne’s bunch, pointing out that ASU is loaded with six seniors including returning starters Briann January, Lauren Lacey and Sybil Dosty.

Hey, that works for us.

If men’s basketball is more your brand of vodka, we hope to have a whole slew of men’s hoops links off today’s media day event for you tomorrow.

New to Echo from the Buttes? Don’t miss:
Our thoughts on Rudy Carpenter getting his due against Cal.
Our debate on Michael Crow’s campaign to supersize ASU.
Our celebration of Mill Avenue’s top 10 ranking.

Tags: ASU Football, Other ASU Sports , briann january, charli turner thorne, Dennis Erickson, lauren lacey, Omar Bolden, rich olsen, sybil dosty // Add Comment »