Arizona State expected to hire Graham Rossini as Athletic Director

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State is expected to promote business officer and senior associate athletic director Graham Rossini to the role of athletic director. Rossini replaces Ray Anderson who resigned on Nov. 13, 2023.

JUST IN: ASU coaches were told this week that ASU's Executive Senior Associate AD and Chief Business Officer Graham Rossini will be prompted to Athletic Director. This is a move that has been in the works for months and is now poised to take place in the very near future.

— DevilsDigest.com (@DevilsDigest) May 15, 2024

ASU coaches across all sports were made aware of the move earlier this week, first reported by Devils Digest.

Arizona State expected to hire Graham Rossini as AD

Rossini is an ASU alum and returned to Tempe in 2021 as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Sun Devil Athletics. In the Fall of 2023, he was promoted to Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director.

Prior to his latest stint with ASU, Rossini worked in ASU’s athletic department following his graduation from the WP Carry School of Business at ASU. The up-and-comer then took a position with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he worked for 13 years.

With the Diamondbacks, he led over 300 million dollars in capital projects. This included renovations to Chase Field and Salt River Fields.

After coming back to ASU, he helped secure the naming rights for Mountain America Stadium and an extension for Desert Financial Arena. Rossini was also instrumental in the hiring of volleyball coach JJ Van Niel. Van Niel just led the Sun Devil volleyball program to its second-best record ever. The first-year head coach also won Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

Just a few weeks ago, Brett McMurphy of the Action Network reported that Rossini was the favorite to land the athletic director position. However, many fans and boosters voiced their negative opinions over the possibility of an in-house hire.

Arizona State executive associate AD Graham Rossini was considered favorite to replace AD Ray Anderson, but his candidacy in question, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. This is due to growing backlash from major donors after ASU’s NCAA recruiting violations, including 7 show cause…

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) April 25, 2024

It looks like while this may have caused a hiccup in President Michael Crow’s plan, it didn’t alter the final decision.

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