ASU AD Says ‘Have At It’ To Other Schools Trying to Recruit Pac-12 Players

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – There are a lot of questions that have followed the announcement from the Pac-12 that fall sports competition has been postponed until at least January 1, 2021.

One of them is the possibility of other schools outside of the conference that are still planning on playing in the fall, might try to recruit Pac-12 players to bolster their team in the fall rather than that player waiting until possibly the spring to take the field.

The Pac-12 held a news conference with Commissioner Larry Scott, Michael Schill, University of Oregon President and Chair of the Pac-12 CEO Group, along with Arizona State Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson and Oregon State Senior Associate Athletic Director, Sports Medicine Dr. Doug Aukerman were on the Zoom call.

Players Potentially Transferring

When asked about players in the conference possibly transferring, Anderson didn’t seem too concerned.

“To the extent where others think essentially come recruit our players, we would say ‘have at it,'” Anderson stated. “We’re not going to change what is important to us which is protecting our student-athletes, worried about whether others trying to essentially entice our student-athletes away. We think our student-athletes will appreciate that we have done what is in their best interest short and long term and we are going to continue to do that.”

At the end of the day, Anderson believes the student-athletes will appreciate the conference have their best interest in mind.

“We don’t know if they are going to play or not,” Anderson said. “We made the decision that is in the best interest of our student-athletes in their experience. I think our coaches are very confident, our medical folks are very confident. I think all of us are very confident that we made a decision with our presidents and chancellors in the best interest of our student-athletes. That will be appreciated. We will play again.”

"We made a decision … in the best interest of our student-athletes and that will be appreciated because we will play again."

– Ray Anderson, Arizona State AD

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) August 11, 2020

Maintaining Eligibility

The next big question now that fall sports has been postponed is what will happen with the eligibility of the student-athletes? The NCAA granted early in the spring when college sports were canceled that the student-athletes would be allowed an extra year of eligibility. Commissioner Scott believes the NCAA needs to do the same for the fall sports athletes if a season isn’t played.

“We are strongly encouraging the NCAA to make decisions as quickly as possible to extend eligibility for student-athletes,” Scott said. “You saw what happened in the spring and we are going to be our shoulder completely behind supporting our student-athletes if they don’t get to play a season, to have another year back.”

"We are strongly encouraging the NCAA to extend eligibility."

– Larry Scott, @pac12 commissioner

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) August 11, 2020

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.