TEMPE — Many were taken aback by Kenny Dillingham saying Arizona State is missing a big-spending booster willing to offer a $20 million check to the program.
The context: the ASU football coach’s remarks came as he agreed to an amended contract to keep him in Tempe as Michigan’s search for a leader moves on without him.
The reality of the competitive landscape in college football in 2025 and beyond is that the best programs are getting that type of support, but Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said a little can go a long way considering the size of ASU’s alumni base.
“If somebody’s going to write a $20 million check, I’m all for it. Would love to find those people,” Rossini said Sunday. “But more importantly, when you look at almost 700,000 ASU alumni all over the world, there’s almost a million people that have attended this university.
“That’s where a little bit can start to go a long way in terms of feeding the momentum that we’re starting to create.”
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Rossini highlighted the past season, when all seven home games were sold out for the first time in program history.
He said continuing to channel that energy back into the team is a big step toward building the support that the program needs.
Arizona State fans who renew their season tickets would be directly helping to retain Dillingham, as Rossini said a 25,000-season ticket threshold was worked into the contract as a trigger for yearly extensions. The previous trigger was simply clearing six wins for bowl eligibility.
It’s a creative workaround necessary in the state of Arizona, as the Board of Regents has a five-year contract limit for university employees. With the workaround, Dillingham can be viewed as under contract for up to 10 years.
Rossini also said ASU president Michael Crow was hugely important in prioritizing the new deal for Dillingham and suggested Crow doesn’t get the credit he deserves for how involved he’s been with supplying the athletic department.
“There’s been this narrative this week of Dr. Crow doesn’t care about sports,” Rossini said. “I couldn’t find anything farther from the truth, and that’s maybe something that at a university level, we want to showcase his involvement and his investment more and more. It’s a big reason why we were able to max out (House settlement funds) in the first year.
“That’s $20.5 million that didn’t exist in our budget last year. … That’s a president that’s invested in athletics.”
Dillingham on Saturday said he and Crow will partner together for further fundraising efforts.
“Me and him have a plan to try to raise more money here together,” the coach said. “I’ve got unbelievable belief that he can get it done. He’s arguably the best fundraiser — you could truly say it — in all of the country and college. I mean, what he’s done to this institution over the last 20 years is is remarkable.
“I mean, that’s a guy who, if he’s committed to trying to fundraise for this program and trying to elevate this program, then that’s something that I can get behind.”
Arizona State began contract discussions with Kenny Dillingham in October, Rossini says
While the contract agreement didn’t come until he was rumored to be a top candidate for a Michigan job that opened well after the regular season, Rossini said those talks started after the Sun Devils beat Texas Tech on Oct. 18.
That’s when the first high-profile jobs were opening up, such as Penn State (Oct. 12) and Florida (Oct. 19).
Rossini said it was about making sure Dillingham had no reason to even think about entertaining other jobs, as well as preparing for offseason proceedings, such as the transfer portal and assistant coach moves.
“The process was never about Kenny and what he was seeking in this,” the AD said. “We wanted to reward him, and we have rewarded him, and that’s been a very important about investing in the individuals as much as we’re investing in the program. But it got to the point after the UofA game where we had a lot of the program framework in place and that was about getting coach in a solid spot.”
Dillingham said Saturday he was never offered the Michigan job as the process played out.
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