By Craig Morgan
FOXSportsArizona.com
Arizona State will have nothing to play for but pride and a chance to beat its in-state rival when it meets Arizona on Thursday in Tucson.
Two sources familiar with the situation said the Sun Devils� request for a bowl-eligibility waiver from the NCAA will almost certainly be denied. ASU sent the waiver reequest this week.
Because the Sun Devils played two Football Championship Subdivision opponents (Portland State and Northern Arizona), ASU needed seven wins to achieve bowl eligibility. Teams are only allowed to count one win over FCS teams toward that eligibility. Even if the Sun Devils beat the Wildcats, they would fall one win short of that with a 6-6 record.
In its waiver request, ASU argued that San Jose State's decision to drop its 2010 game with the Devils at the last minute and play at Wisconsin for nearly twice the $450,000 payout it would have received from ASU was a scenario beyond the Devils� control.
After attempts to schedule other Football Bowl Subdivision teams failed, the Sun Devils scheduled Portland State.
The Pac-10 will lobby on ASU�s behalf, arguing that, in addition to the predicament San Jose State created, bowl eligibility for ASU would allow the conference to fulfill more of its bowl obligations in a year when less than half the conference could be eligible under the current rules. The Pac-10 currently has tie-ins with the Rose Bowl, the Alamo Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Maaco (Las Vegas) Bowl and the Fight Hunger Bowl. �
Both sources said granting ASU�s waiver would set a dangerous precedent for other teams.
�This isn�t the first time this scenario has occurred,� one source said, �so this isn�t a unique circumstance that might lead the NCAA to rule in ASU�s favor.�
ASU�s greatest hope was that not enough teams would meet the eligibility requirements for the 35 existing bowls. But after last week�s games, exactly 70 teams are eligible. An additional four teams (Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, Oregon State and Washington) would earn eligibility if they win their final games this week.
If there are enough teams to fill all the bowl games, or even a surplus, the sources said, how would the NCAA tell one of those teams it can not go to a bowl game while it allows ASU, a team that did not meet the requirements, to go?
It would be a cruel and fitting conclusion to ASU�s season of near-misses if the Devils beat Arizona and exactly 70 other teams are eligible for those 70 bowl slots. It�s a scenario that could play out since Louisiana Tech plays at No. 17 Nevada, Middle Tennessee concludes its Sun Belt Conference season at first-place Florida International, Oregon State plays at No. 1 Oregon and Washington meets Washington State in The Apple Cup in Pullman.
A perfect
storm of events has put the Pac-10 in position to fulfill as few as one
of its six bowl tie-ins this season. Entering the final week of the
season, the conference has just three bowl-eligible teams and would
manage no more than six if ASU�s faint hopes for a waiver from the NCAA
were granted. Here�s a look at the 10 Pac-10 teams and their bowl
eligibility scenarios.
| �Team | �Record | �Remaining game |
Projected bowl (win) |
Projected bowl (loss) |
| �Oregon | �11-0 | �@ Oregon St. |
�BCS Championship |
�Rose |
| �Stanford | �11-1 | �None | �Fiesta | �Fiesta |
| �Arizona | �7-4 | �ASU | �Alamo | �Alamo, Holiday or Sun |
| �Oregon State |
�5-6 | �Oregon | �Alamo or Sun |
�None |
| �Washington | �5-6 | �@ Washington St. |
�Alamo, Holiday or Sun |
�None |
| �ASU | �5-6 | �@ Arizona | �None | �None |
| �California | �5-7 | �None | �None | �None |
| �UCLA | �4-7 | �USC | �None | �None |
| �Washington St. |
�2-9 | �Washington | �None | �None |
| �USC | �7-5 | �@ UCLA |
�Ineligible | � |
