Arizona State football has self-imposed a one-year bowl ban amid an ongoing investigation into the program's recruiting practices under former coach Herm Edwards.
The Sun Devils finished 3-9 this past season and parted ways with Edwards, who they elected to pay half of his remaining salary (around $4.4 million), according to SunDevilSource.com. Reporter Chris Karpman said Arizona State could have imposed a ban ahead of the 2022 season but decided to wait.
Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson said the following in a statement Sunday morning: “Arizona State University has informed the NCAA and the Pac-12 conference that it will self-impose a one-year postseason ban on its football program for the upcoming season. In light of the ongoing investigation and our membership obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the matter, we will no be commenting further at this time.”
Sun Devil football coach Kenny Dillingham said he met with Anderson and deputy athletics director Jean Boyd at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and received the news before his team's practice.
“I knew today would be [expletive], when they receive horrible news on a Tuesday (Arizona State's first game is Thursday against Southern Utah) practice in the morning before we meet for special teams,” Dillingham said. “To think that 18 to 22-year-olds are going to go out and have a good Tuesday practice is absolutely delusional. But I think the guys battled, the guys did the best they could do.”
Karpman reported Anderson told the team about the ban this morning, but junior tight end Jaylin Conyers and others said it was a “short and sweet” conversation.
“What I just told the team is, ‘Nobody cares about your circumstance,'” Dillingham said. “And reality, most people in life would rather see other people fail so they don't have to work hard and actually work hard enough to beat them.
“So everybody looks at this and they're like, ‘Oh great, Arizona State's not going to be motivated anymore.' That's a win… If people are looking at us and they're satisfied, they're singing for joy, they're excited because they think there's no way Arizona State football is going to be able to keep their mindset to compete, and that's the challenge is, it's us versus us every day.”
Arizona State football will play its season-opener Thursday and play a season in which it will not be able to play for anything beyond it. The Sun Devils will start freshman and former four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada in the game.
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