ASU Sports Fans want Athletic Director Ray Anderson Removed

By Jim Marshall

TEMPE, AZ – Arizona State Sun Devil sports fans want Athletic Director Ray Anderson removed after announcing a self-imposed postseason ban for the 2023-24 season. Anderson imposed the ban seemingly to protect the football program from potential losses of scholarships and recruiting opportunities from an ongoing NCAA investigation. The investigation is from the Sun Devils hosting recruits during the Covid-19 “dead” period. During that time coaches were not allowed to have any in-person contact with recruits and/or their parents. One of the bigger allegations has the mother of a player (no longer at ASU) purchasing tickets for travel to the campus and staff members providing tours.

Post Season Ban

The ongoing NCAA investigation, which is in its third year with no end in sight, led Anderson to make the decision announced on Sunday August 27. The postseason ban means the football team will not be eligible for a bowl game this year regardless of how many games the team wins. Also, there is no guarantee that there will not be any further sanctions from the NCAA when the investigation closes.

Angry Fans

Just how angry are the fans? Angry enough to purchase mobile billboards with messages to fire Anderson and telling fans “only you can save ASU athletics.” There is even a website, FireRayAnderson.com. Arizona state senator T.J. Shope is calling for the Arizona Board of Regents to look into investigating Anderson, citing the disastrous leadership of Arizona State University’s athletic department and the fallout for their student-athletes at a public funded college.

Anderson is not Qualified

Anderson is not qualified to be an athletic director. He has no college sports background other than as an athlete playing baseball and football at Stanford. This latest move is yet another poor decision made by Anderson, which goes back to his hiring of Herm Edwards. Anderson was an agent of and is a close personal friend of Edwards. He brought in Edwards even though he’d been out of coaching for over ten years and had never coached at the college level. Edwards promised to bring in big time recruits and bring the football program in line with other top college programs; however, he never succeeded. Granted, he did have a winning record (26-20), but he never won the Pac 12 Conference nor even the Pac 12 South Division. While the Sun Devils played in three bowl games, they only won one.

Should Anderson Lose his Job

Should Ray Anderson lose his job for this and the other questionable moves he has made during his tenure his leadership has failed on so many levels and there is no other way to look at it other than he has a total lack of institutional control. Whether Arizona State University’s President, Michael Crow, acts on this remains to be seen. However, last October Crow have Anderson a vote of confidence. In the meantime, let’s show support for the football program and head coach Kenny Dillingham and all the other sports teams at Arizona State. They didn’t create the problem, but will suffer because of it and because of the decision Anderson announced Sunday.