The Arizona State Sun Devils made another move to distance themselves from the Herm Edwards coaching era Sunday, handing down a self-imposed, one-year bowl game ban in the wake of a long-running NCAA recruiting investigation.
The investigation, which dated back to Edwards’ recruiting practices during the 2020 COVID-19 season, ultimately cost coach Kenny Dillingham a shot at reaching a bowl game in his first year in Tempe.
It also inspired BetArizona.com to examine how recent college football teams have fared during their one-year exile from the postseason and how that might impact Arizona sports betting on the Sun Devils. Here’s where the past 10 football programs have finished the year, dating back to Miami and USC in 2011.
Records of Recent Teams With Bowl Bans
Arizona sports betting apps give ASU the second-worst championship odds of any Pac-12 team at +15000.
What Past Bowl Bans Tell Us About ASU
The main thing that separates the Sun Devils of 2023 with several other recent bowl-banned teams is ASU has low expectations entering the year, with a preseason win total over/under of 4.5 at Caesars Sportsbook Arizona. Arizona State most closely matches up with Missouri in 2019 and Ole Miss in 2018 and 2017 — those two schools went 17-19 during those campaigns.
It’s safe to say that no one outside Tempe expected Dillingham and his staff to resurrect ASU to the heights Lane Kiffin did at USC in 2011 (going 10-2 during an NCAA-instituted bowl ban) or Urban Meyer did at Ohio State in 2012 (going 12-0 in his first season in Columbus). So it’s more realistic to pin the Sun Devils’ immediate future on the level of teams like the Tigers and Rebels than the Buckeyes and Trojans.
In total, the last 10 teams to sit out a bowl game (since 2011) have gone 75-45 (.625), with nine of those winning at least six games during their one-year bowl game exile. Four teams won at least eight games, in the UNC Tar Heels, Penn State Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes (in 2012), while the Trojans did so in 2011.
For now, all we know is the Sun Devils will be watching 86 teams play in one of the 43 college football bowl games at home, regardless of how well ASU fares during the 2023 football season. Arizona State opens its season at 9 p.m. Thursday against Southern Utah. Major operators like FanDuel Sportsbook Arizona don’t have a line posted on the game.
