Andy Staples criticizes Arizona State for decision, timing of one-year bowl ban

Arizona State put quite a damper on their upcoming season by self-imposing a bowl ban on their team with their opener less than a week out. That timing, and the decision in general, had On3’s Andy Staples fired up about what’s going on in Tempe.

Staples shared his thoughts on the Sun Devil’s bowl ban during the latest episode of his show on Sunday night. His first criticism on the matter was when they made the announcement considering the lack of care that it showed to the players within their football program.

“Here’s where this is kind of messed up: They didn’t decide to do this to the team until now where nobody can transfer because the season has already started. Class has already started so they can’t go anywhere,” said Staples. “It’s pretty messed up. You could have been a little more honest and forthright with your players but that’s what we’ve come to expect from all the schools and from the NCAA – they don’t really care about the players. So this is how it works.”

From there, Staples was more frustrated considering there was a way to go about this that was obviously better. Based on their knowledge of the investigation and the direction of the program last year, they could have placed this upon last year’s team rather than this year when Kenny Dillingham is attempting to lay a foundation.

“The smarter thing to do would have been, in the spring of 2022, because you already knew about all this stuff? They’d been being investigated for a while,” explained Staples. “You know you’re probably going to fire Herm Edwards in 2022, which they did. You’re probably not going to be very good in 2022, which they weren’t at 3-9. You should have done it then! That’s when you should have done it!”

“What would have happened is everybody would have transferred. You would have had the crappy season you were expecting. You would have fired Herm Edwards like you were expecting. And then Kenny Dillingham would have been able to come in and not have to worry about running anybody off, not worry about gently encouraging anyone to transfer. He would have been able to come in with a basically wide open roster and fill it up,” Staples said. “That would have been more fun, I think, then this. Because you’d already be done with that. And you wouldn’t have to worry about looking like jerks because you just basically entrapped your seniors.”

In the end, Staples was not very high with his approval rating when it came to the Sun Devil’s leadership. He gets that it takes the pressure off of their results this fall. Overall, though, there was just a way for them to handle it that would have been better for everyone involved.

“They’re not good at this stuff, clearly. And this all could have been taken care of by now. All of it. But, again, you did it now,” Staples said.

“I’m not entirely sure why they did this. But they’re doing it now,” said Staples. “I do understand the logic of wanting to give Kenny Dillingham basically a year zero. He doesn’t have to worry about what the record is, he doesn’t have to worry about the postseason. I get that. But there was a better way to do this. There just was. So we’ll see what happens.”