ASU athletic director Graham Rossini hopes success persuades athletes to stay for long haul

Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said the recent success in sports such as football hopefully can persuade its athletes to stay at the school long-term.

Rossini joined Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday and hopes the success makes Sun Devil athletes want to stay at ASU and that the school’s NIL situation sets them up to accomplish that goal.

“We are in a situation where the Sun Angels Collective continues to be a huge part of our success in NIL and we are lucky to have tremendous people involved in the collective,” Rossini said. “We’re going into that part of the year where the (transfer) portal is going to be open again and we want to make sure that these kids understand there’s more than just NIL.

“We’ve got to broaden the horizon for our athletes to understand you can’t be looking short-term season to season. You need to be looking at the totality of what it’s like to be apart of the ASU family, what’s it like to be in here in the valley and how that can pay dividends the rest of your life.”

The ASU football program became bowl eligible for the first time since 2021 with a 42-21 win versus Oklahoma State on Saturday, and Rossini sees it as progress for a team that went 3-9 in 2023.

“We’re going to be in a bowl, and that’s the most exciting part and a very important part of the trend line of us continuing to improve with Sun Devil football, and that was goal one,” Rossini said.

Despite becoming bowl eligible, Rossini said the team knows its season is not done and that they want to continue its success in its matchup against the UCF Knights on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe.

“We understand how far we can take (the season),” Rossini said. “Goal one was bowl eligible but we are not satisfied, we are not complacent. We want to keep pushing and I know Coach (Kenny Dillingham) has got the guys ready to roll.”