The Arizona State football program has self-imposed a bowl ban for the 2023 season as they await the NCAA’s investigation results and sanction decisions.
“Arizona State University has informed the NCAA and Pac-12 conference that it will self-impose a one-year postseason ban on its football program for the upcoming season,” Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson said in a statement over the weekend.
The program is currently under investigation by the NCAA due to allegations that the Sun Devils hosted recruits on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic dead period. Those allegations happened under then-head coach Herm Edwards who mutually parted ways with the university last September following a 30-21 loss to Eastern Michigan.
With the investigation now going on for over two years, the Arizona State athletic department and football program decided that self-imposing a bowl ban was likely the best way to diminish any punishments handed down by the NCAA itself in the future.
The Sun Devils are coming off a 3-9 season in 2022, the program’s first losing season since 2016 and just their second since 2009. Following Edwards’ firing, the program was led by interim head coach Shaun Aguano, who served as the program’s running backs coach since 2019.
This season, the Sun Devils are entering their first season under Kenny Dillingham, who spent the last five years as an offensive coordinator at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State, and Oregon. The Sun Devils will begin their season on Thursday, August 31, against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, an FCS program out of the United Athletic Conference.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=15]