After defeating UA in Tucson Thursday, the ASU football team held out slight hope that the Territorial Cup victory wasn’t going to be the last time they took the field this season.
However, that will be the case as ASU will miss out on the postseason for the third consecutive season.
The Sun Devils’ season officially ended on Friday when the NCAA denied the school’s waiver to become bowl eligible at 6-6 despite having two victories against Football Championship Subdivision schools.
The NCAA only allows teams from the Football Bowl Subdivision to count one victory against an FCS school to count towards the six victories required to be considered bowl eligible.
“It is a pretty steadfast rule, but I thought we had a chance in our discussions with the NCAA because of our situation,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “They didn’t OK it and I understand that. We end up going 6-6 and beating the University of Arizona. We would have liked to have played another game, but we didn’t win seven games; that’s the bottom line.”
ASU tried to argue that having two FCS opponents on the schedule was due to circumstances that they couldn’t control.
San Jose State dropped out of a scheduled game because of a bigger financial reward that was offered by Wisconsin. That left the university scrambling to find an opponent very late in the scheduling process. The only option was to schedule a second FCS school, which happened to be Portland State.
“It was a powerful way to end the season last night in Tucson,” ASU Vice President for Athletics Lisa Love said. “We are disappointed in the outcome that we are not going to a bowl game, but everyone involved worked very hard to make that happen.”
To say that ASU was close to winning seven games would be a huge understatement. The Sun Devils lost four games by a total of nine points.
The ruling undeniably impacts ASU’s senior class the most. Despite not getting to play in a bowl game, the seniors will always remember their final game in maroon and gold.
“It’s obviously disappointing that we will not be playing in a bowl game,” senior kicker Thomas Weber said. “That being said, the win last night over Arizona in Tucson was as exciting as any game I have ever been a part of, and being able to say that my last game at ASU brought the Territorial Cup back to Tempe is something I will never forget.”
While it was the last game for the seniors, Love sees the win over the Wildcats as a way to propel ASU into next season, where they will have high expectations with all but two starters returning.
“We are excited by the fact that we ended the year by winning three of our last five games,” Love said. “It is a tremendous springboard into the very promising 2011 campaign.”
In the end, bringing the Territorial Cup back to Tempe is what Erickson will take out of the 2010 season coming to an end.
“We did finish the season like we wanted,” Erickson said. “I’ll take that game last night over any bowl game.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
