UNRB wins in a landslide!

It's official, the people have spoken! From now on, at least on this website, the UofA will be known as the University of No Rose Bowls. In the runoff poll, UNRB received more than twice the number of votes of its closest competitor.

Thanks to everyone for voting. My personal favorite, CGU (Closing the Gap), trailed badly in the first poll, but I am very happy to jump on the UNRB bandwagon.

Go Devils!

A quick word on this week's poll

I messed up with the new poll by opening it for voting before I had completed the list of answers. Apparently, Blogger does not allow you to modify a poll after voting has started. Therefore, I will leave the current poll open for a couple more days then post a follow up with the winner of this poll in a runoff against some of the most popular omissions.

Updated 2/11: OK, the runoff poll is up! au won the first poll, with Mildcats a solid second, so both have been carried over to the new poll.

2010 schedule completed: don't blame ASU

As expected, ASU was unable to find an FBS (1-A) school willing to come to Sun Devil Stadium in September, so the Sun Devils will be playing two FCS (1-AA) schools to start the season.

Portland State visits on September 4, followed by NAU on September 11. Portland State will now not be visiting in 2011, so we now have two spots to fill next season.

The Athletic Department does not deserve much criticism for this one. San Jose State pulled out of their contract with ASU for a bigger payday elsewhere, and with only 4 home conference games in even-numbered years we had to have two non-conference home games.  From all accounts, Mark Brand, the ASU associate athletic director who does most of the hard work with football scheduling, tried hard to find a more attractive opponent.  Unfortunately, until we, the fans, start filling Sun Devil Stadium regularly for every game, we can't pay out-of-conference opponents the same type of money that other schools can offer.

When is a price reduction not a price reduction?

The ASU athletic department performed some "fuzzy math" yesterday. In announcing season ticket prices for 2010, the press release claimed that one of the highlights was "No price increases over 2009". Sounds good, except that the 2009 schedule included seven home games but the 2010 schedule features just six, so on a per-game basis some tickets have actually increased in price. For example, tickets in Section 5 increased from $71 per game in 2009 to $83 per game in 2010.

A lot of people failed to notice this "minor" detail. In fact, in today's Republic Jeff Metcalfe wrote that "ASU is not increasing ticket prices", a claim that even the ASU athletic department did not make!

Credit to posts by Sole Diavolo and Devil Diver Down for bringing this to my attention. To be fair, some posters don't think ASU did anything wrong by ignoring the per-game increases in their press release.

An interested party posted some additional details, reproduced here:

Changes

Visiting band moving back from Sec 1 & 2 to Sec 24
Visitor section moved to Sec 230 & 231 from Upper of 215-220

Upper Level Changes

Upper rows of Sec 201-211 are now $99 from $179 to $199
Per game 09= 25.57-28.42 to 10=16.50
Bottom Rows of Sec 201-204, 208-211 & 237-243 now $199 from $260 to $525
Per game 09=37.14-75.00 to 10=33.16
Bottom Rows of Sec 222-226 are now $99 from $149
Per game 09=21.28 to 10=16.50
Bottom Rows of Sec 205-207 now $499 from $525
Per game 09=75.00 to 10=83.16

Lower Level Changes

Sec 1-3, 11-26 & 37-41 are now $199 from $250-$350
Per game 09=35.71-50.00 to 10=33.16
Sec 4, 10 & 27-28 are now $399 from $450
Per game 09=64.28 to 10=66.50
Sec 5, 9 & 29-31 are now $499 from $500
Per game 09=71.42 to 10=83.16
Sec 5a-9a are now $799 from $850-$900
Per game 09=121.42-128.57 to 10=133.16

Loge Changes

Sec 105-107 are now $1746 from $1800
Per game 09=257.14 to 10=291.51
Sec 112-122, 128-131, 137-140 & 145-154 are now $799 from $850
Per game 09=121.42 to 10=133.16
Sec 101-140, 108-111, 129-132 & 136-139 are now $1249 from $1400
Per game 09=200.00 to 10=208.16
Sec 123-127 & 141-144 are now $499 from $850
Per game 09=121.42 to 10=83.16

It looks to me like the best bargains now are lower row seats in sections 204 or 208, which are now $33 per game. These sections are in the upper deck at the 20 yard line on the west side. If you can get in the first 5-8 rows, the view is magnificent from these sections.

Click here for the new seat map (PDF).

Updated: this follow-up post by an ASU representative contains some additional detail, but still feels like a spin job. The revised ticket plan is good - no need to spin it!

Guess who's coming to Sun Devil Stadium?

Still no announcement of the 12th and final opponent on the 2010 football schedule, but there was a significant development today. ASU published a revised schedule showing the NAU game (previously announced for September 4) moved to September 11. So the "TBA" opponent will now be visiting Sun Devil Stadium on Labor Day weekend.

The other notable announcement is that the Oregon game on September 25 is confirmed for a 7pm kickoff, so no risk of this game being moved to daytime for TV.

Look what I found!

While surfing the web, I stumbled across some old content from the State Press.

1987 Sun Devil Spark Rose Bowl Coverage was actually published to the web 10 years later as part of the build up to the 1997 Rose Bowl. Unfortunately the scanned images are of pretty low quality, but anything is better than nothing!

Also fun to read is The Sun Devil Spark's detailed summary of the 1996 season that I do not recall seeing before.

2010: The Year We Make Contact (with the top of the Pac-10?)

I have posted the 2010 schedule on the main page, primarily to get rid of memories of 2009 as quickly as possible.

Keep in mind that the Pac-10 opener will be Oregon on September 25 -- this game was moved up from its original date so that both schools get a bye week in the middle of the season.

With 2009 wrapped up, the conference opener predictor worked again. Counting conference games only, since joining the Pac-10 in 1978, ASU has lost the conference opener 18 times, and in those seasons has gone a combined 59-77-2 (a 43% win percentage). However, in the 12 seasons in which we have won our first Pac-10 game, the composite record is 60-36-0 (a 63% win percentage). We tied our opener in 1983 and 1986 and finished a combined 9-4-2 in those seasons.

Since 1982, ASU has only once (in 1999) lost the conference opener and finished with a winning record in the Pac-10. Conversely, 2008 and 1994 were the only seasons where the Sun Devils won their conference opener but finished below .500 in the Pac-10.

Next season's home schedule is ugly, with five Pac-10 road games and our "A" out-of-conference game at Wisconsin. Remember, we are still looking for a replacement for the September 11 game at SDS.

Feeling green?

Different time, but same deal as last week.  Those living in the green states will see ASU try to get their biggest win in the past two years on their local ABC station.  Those elsewhere need to subscribe to ESPN GamePlan, have access to ESPN360.com, or go to a sports bar.  The Trojans will come out angry -- can our defense prevent an early deficit for once?  Please?

Television Coverage for Cal @ ASU

Those living in the green area get to see ASU and Cal on their local ABC station.  Those elsewhere need to subscribe to ESPN GamePlan, have access to ESPN360.com, go to a sports bar, or watch a different game and hope that the ticker does not show another early lead big for the bad guys.  As I have said before, ASU will not win a game this season in which they trail by 14+ points.

Nice Defense!

Update: watch at around the 1:00 mark to see Nick Holt snort! Thanks to B.L.Z. Bubba for the tip.