Ray Anderson departure a year later

November 13, 2023, Ray Anderson resigned/fired/showed the door/exit, stage right as Athletic Director at Arizona State University. A year later, the head football coach hired under his watch has delivered in a big way. That isn’t to say that Anderson was solely responsible for hiring Kenny Dillingham. Still, it shouldn’t be lost that the man who was fired had a hand in what we see today in the rebirth of a football program that was among the worst in the country when the whiz kid head coach took over. I can’t sit here today with a straight face and say all is well at “Always Something University.” New athletic director Graham Rossini took over the job in late May. It’s far too early to judge his wins and losses, but I will say firsthand that he’s been personable, confident, and professional in my conversations with him. It’s much easier to be out among the masses when the football team delivers a season with a group of above-board coaches and embraceable players.  Still, we haven’t heard one peep about the badly needed renovation of Desert Financial Arena. A couple of years back, I was laughed at by some on the campus for suggesting that moving basketball over to the newly constructed Mullett Arena would be the simplest, most intelligent way to get the remodel needed. Bobby Hurley could give recruits the “come here and be part of a new building, a new era.” Instead, lipstick has been applied (insert your barnyard animal here). In the meantime, Mullett is now hosting the G-League Suns team. So what gives?  Remember the idea of Arizona State basketball sharing a facility with the Coyotes once a vote passed in Tempe? Uh, ya. So here we are a year later, and the most significant hurdles facing Rossini aside from the arena debacle are still to come. ASU athletics has 26 sports.

• Men’s sports

  Baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, wrestling
• Women’s sports

  Basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, triathlon, volleyball, water polo

   

How do these sports remain financially viable/competitive in the new age of NIL, House settlement, etc? How often can you return to the same big cigar and request funding? I can go back to May 2008, sitting on a wall at Karsten Golf Course with a young man named Anthony Robles. He was dazed and confused because the Sun Devil wrestling program had been cut earlier in the day. The school president at the time was the same as today. Fortunately, the program was saved by some local leaders, and we know how the Robles story turned out. 

So here we are a year later, and there’s positive momentum around Arizona State athletics’ biggest revenue generator: football. However, with winning comes the reality that the players are going to want more money in this new world. Quarterback Sam Leavitt is just a redshirt freshman. Don’t you think some programs with deeper pockets than in Tempe will go after him after the season? Need a WR? How about Jordyn Tyson? Want a head coach who showed he could turn around a mess? Here’s Kenny Dillingham. I believe Graham Rossini has the department in better shape than it was on Anderson’s last day a year ago, but his heavy lifting hasn’t really started yet…