By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Ray Anderson brought in a ringer for his quarterly State of Sun Devil Athletics address on Tuesday at Karsten Golf Course.
"It's important for us to be able to give you some insight as to how we view athletics as a very integral part of everything we do here at ASU," the Vice President for University Athletics told gathered media, coaches and administrators before handing the microphone to ASU President Michael Crow.
Over the next 35 minutes, Crow provided detailed insight about Sun Devil Athletics' place in the university's overall mission.
"One of the core elements of American society is competition," Crow said. "You compete to get into a university. You compete to get into a degree program. You compete to get out of the degree program. You compete to get your job against other people who are trying to get the job from you. You compete with your ideas.
"Every single way that we express competitiveness at the highest order, we do that, and sports is the place that we do it with the greatest visibility; the place where we compete against other American colleges.
"In all of our men's and women's sports, what we're after is finding great student-athletes who will become great academic performers… What we're after is great student-athletes competing for national championships, competing for conference championships, competing to go to the Rose Bowl."
Eleven ASU teams had their highest four-year APR score and eight were first in the Pac-12 in their sport in the latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate for the 2012-16 period, released in May. Fifteen of 20 ASU teams earned 1,000 for 2015-16 and seven scored 1,000 over the four-year period. A record seven ASU sports -- men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, women's tennis, volleyball and gymnastics -- were ranked among the top 10 percent nationally in APR scores.
"You might have noted -- it gets covered a little bit -- the huge improvements in academic performance, the huge improvements in life outcomes and graduation outcomes and life success for our athletes," Crow said. "We're very excited about all of that."
To achieve the second half of the success equation, Crow noted the "tremendous investments that we've been making in football and basketball and other things that we've been trying to do to move things forward -- tremendous new coaches coming in in women's lacrosse, women's triathlon, in wrestling, in swimming, gymnastics, other areas where we're moving things forward on every possible level."
Crow confirmed that the final phase of Sun Devil Stadium renovations will be completed by the start of the 2018 football season, "on time, on budget," and he also said fund-raising is underway for the renovation of Wells Fargo Arena and the construction of a hockey/Olympic sports arena.
As the Arizona Republic reported on Tuesday, the man at the crest of that progress wave, Anderson, will receive a contract extension to continue his work.
"Ray is and has been and will be a great athletic director who understands why we're here," Crow said. "We are here to demonstrate that American college students from any family background can compete as athletes at the highest level in 26 different competitive arenas and go to college and finish college at a high very high rate. That's what we're all about."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Ray Anderson brought in a ringer for his quarterly State of Sun Devil Athletics address on Tuesday at Karsten Golf Course.
"It's important for us to be able to give you some insight as to how we view athletics as a very integral part of everything we do here at ASU," the Vice President for University Athletics told gathered media, coaches and administrators before handing the microphone to ASU President Michael Crow.
Over the next 35 minutes, Crow provided detailed insight about Sun Devil Athletics' place in the university's overall mission.
"One of the core elements of American society is competition," Crow said. "You compete to get into a university. You compete to get into a degree program. You compete to get out of the degree program. You compete to get your job against other people who are trying to get the job from you. You compete with your ideas.
"Every single way that we express competitiveness at the highest order, we do that, and sports is the place that we do it with the greatest visibility; the place where we compete against other American colleges.
"In all of our men's and women's sports, what we're after is finding great student-athletes who will become great academic performers… What we're after is great student-athletes competing for national championships, competing for conference championships, competing to go to the Rose Bowl."
Eleven ASU teams had their highest four-year APR score and eight were first in the Pac-12 in their sport in the latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate for the 2012-16 period, released in May. Fifteen of 20 ASU teams earned 1,000 for 2015-16 and seven scored 1,000 over the four-year period. A record seven ASU sports -- men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, women's tennis, volleyball and gymnastics -- were ranked among the top 10 percent nationally in APR scores.
"You might have noted -- it gets covered a little bit -- the huge improvements in academic performance, the huge improvements in life outcomes and graduation outcomes and life success for our athletes," Crow said. "We're very excited about all of that."
To achieve the second half of the success equation, Crow noted the "tremendous investments that we've been making in football and basketball and other things that we've been trying to do to move things forward -- tremendous new coaches coming in in women's lacrosse, women's triathlon, in wrestling, in swimming, gymnastics, other areas where we're moving things forward on every possible level."
Crow confirmed that the final phase of Sun Devil Stadium renovations will be completed by the start of the 2018 football season, "on time, on budget," and he also said fund-raising is underway for the renovation of Wells Fargo Arena and the construction of a hockey/Olympic sports arena.
As the Arizona Republic reported on Tuesday, the man at the crest of that progress wave, Anderson, will receive a contract extension to continue his work.
"Ray is and has been and will be a great athletic director who understands why we're here," Crow said. "We are here to demonstrate that American college students from any family background can compete as athletes at the highest level in 26 different competitive arenas and go to college and finish college at a high very high rate. That's what we're all about."