Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson announced Monday that he is stepping down, effective immediately. The 69-year-old Anderson, who took over the Sun Devils job in 2014, will stay with the university as a professor and senior advisor in the law school. James Lund, a senior vice president for outreach and student services, will serve as interim athletic director while Arizona State searches for a permanent replacement.
"It has been a privilege to serve as ASU's athletic director for nearly a decade," Anderson said in a statement. "We have entered an unprecedented era where the number and magnitude of changes in the college sports landscape are astounding. As I approach my seventh decade of life, these are not matters that my leadership would be able to corral during my tenure. Continuity of leadership will be needed, and I am choosing to step aside to let the university find that leader."
Arizona State was Anderson's first job in college athletics. Previously, he was an agent for AR Sports who represented players and coaches alike at the NFL level. Herm Edwards, Anderson's friend and former client at AR Sports, was his "splash hire" in 2017.
Anderson's tenure was mired in some controversy across various sports. He opted not to retain softball coach Trisha Ford in 2022 despite on-field success. On Aug. 27, four days before the start of the 2023 football season, Arizona State announced a self-imposed postseason ban due to an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations committed by Edwards and his staff during the 2020 season. First-year coach Kenny Dillingham said that he was not informed of the possibility of a postseason ban until that morning.
"It's not great, especially on a Tuesday for practice," Dillingham said during a media availability. "But it is what it is. Like I told the guys, we can't control it. Like, you can't control it. Not one person in the country feels bad for us. Matter of fact, more people are happy about it cause like I said, people love to see other people down."
Dillingham later defended Anderson: "I think he's kind of in the middle of all this. And Ray's been really, really good to me since I've got here. And I don't know what happened in the past here but Ray has been really good to me since I've got here."
The Sun Devils are 2-7 through their first nine games with Dillingham at the helm.
Arizona State's football program enjoyed some success under Anderson's -- it posted a 10-2 regular-season record and earned a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game in his first year -- but hasn't reached such heights since. Anderson moved on from coach Todd Graham in 2017 and brought in Edwards, who won eight regular-season games just once and posted a 1-2 record in bowl games.
Anderson fired Edwards on Sept. 18, 2022, one day after a 30-21 loss to Eastern Michigan. The Sun Devils finished the 2022 season with a 3-9 record, their lowest win total since 1994.
