Kenny Dillingham and company shocked everyone after beating the Bruins in easily one of the most unconventional game plans concocted in Sun Devil history. Coach Dillingham was met with cheers from the large crowd of the ASU visitor’s section of the Rose Bowl. However, Ray Anderson received a chant that had a much different tone.

We can only speculate as to whether this was the final straw, but two days later, Ray Anderson announced his resignation as athletic director.

Ray Anderson had done a great deal of good at Arizona State University, especially academically. Anderson led the way to drastically improving the Academic Progress Rate of the SunDevil student-athletes with their scores competing as the best in the Pac-12 with Stanford.

There has also been a wonderful list of coaches who have led their programs to great success in the Olympic sports such as Coaches Bob Bowman, Zeke Jones, and Cliff English. 

The improvements to the facilities that ASU enjoys today can also be thanks to Ray Anderson. ASU boasts the state-of-the-art Papago Golf Course and, most recently, Mullet Arena. The renovations to Sun Devil Stadium were much needed and created a great deal of additional revenue.

However, there are reasons why most students, alumni, and fans of Sun Devil Athletics have a negative opinion of the former athletic director. We’ll start with the most obvious one in football.

ASU has been very proud of its football program and was once a powerhouse in the Pac-12. All of that changed when Anderson decided to bring on Herm Edwards, forever tarnishing his legacy in Tempe.

Herm Edwards, who hadn’t coached at all in almost a decade at the time he was hired (Thamel, 2017), was brought in to introduce a “pro model” to the football program. Yet, when the NCAA allowed NIL deals for their players, Anderson actively turned down these deals. Deals that not only would’ve greatly helped the players financially but deals that lost recruits to other schools willing to adopt the pro model.

Now, thanks to Herm Edwards, Antonio Pierce, and Ray Anderson, the football program that is struggling to reach its full potential is held back by investigations into the recruiting infractions done during the 2020 COVID pandemic.

While ASU is left to take the beating from the NCAA on these infractions, Anderson and friends have left for far greener pastures and cushier positions. 

Herm Edwards was fired but didn’t leave without cashing a 4.4-million-dollar buyout and a 7-figure salary back at ESPN. Antonio Pierce abandoned the program and now enjoys an interim head coaching position for the Las Vegas Raiders. It is infuriating to watch the Sun Devils suffer while we watch the people responsible thrive in their new positions.

But football was not Ray Anderson’s only downfall in the athletic department, only the problem with the most eyes on it.

Arizona State’s baseball program is a greatly hallowed and decorated part of the athletic program but is now working its way back to its former glory. Anderson is to blame after letting Tracy Smith fail the program for far too long (Cheshire, 2021).This is one of many cases, like football, where Anderson brought in a friend when they clearly shouldn’t have been there.

Women’s sports have also suffered due to the incapability of Anderson to retain our great coaches who brought success to ASU. 

Charlie Turner Thorne, who honestly deserves a statue on campus, decided to retire after 25 years of successful basketball, not to mention her huge impact on the lives of the students she mentored (Phillipou, 2022). Yet, after she retired from Sun Devil basketball, we see that she took up a new job with the Phoenix Mercury. She wasn’t done working in basketball, so why did she feel like she had to leave ASU?

Another devastating loss for the athletic program was when Trisha Ford signed with Texas A&M’s softball program immediately after leading the Sun Devils to the Pac-12 title and only a win away from the Women’s College World Series (Cluff, 2022). ASU’s softball program immediately suffered the loss of Ford the next season.

One of the most concerning aspects of Ray Anderson’s time in Tempe was with the men’s basketball program. It is absolutely that Anderson could blatantly disregard the complaints that Coach Bobby Hurley’s wife had about a booster inappropriately touching her and the wives of other staff in the athletic program (Thamel, 2020). Not only did he ignore the cries for help, but he continued to enjoy the company of this booster and allowed them to still make appearances at basketball games (Karpman, 2020). This alone should’ve been completely unacceptable and the final nail in the coffin for Ray Anderson’s time at ASU.

So where will Ray Anderson go now? Not very far surprisingly. Anderson will continue to be on campus as a professor of practice in ASU’s sports law and business program. We all can only wonder why this is acceptable as we try to uncover any possible underlying motivations for why Anderson is permitted to stay welcome here.

References:

https://sports.yahoo.com/coaching-carousel-herm-edwards-asu-just-doesnt-make-sense-051025957.html

1. https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/33415385/arizona-state-women-basketball-coach-charli-turner-thoPhilippourne-retires-25-years-leading-sun-devils

2. https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/asu/2022/06/07/asu-softball-fans-slam-ray-anderson-trisha-ford-texas-am/10000824002/

3. https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-state-investigation-determines-booster-made-unwelcomed-physical-contact-with-wives-of-three–staff-members-180432778.html

4. https://247sports.com/college/arizona-state/Article/ASU-basketball-Bobby-Hurley-Ray-Anderson-Dave-Cohen-Bart-Wear-147546612/

5. Sun Devils Pick Up Victory in Season Opener After Announcing Self-Imposed Bowl Ban. – All Sports All Play Network (asapsportsnetwork.com)