Mr. Cobb,

While we certainly appreciate all you’ve done for ASU Athletics since you’ve held the AD position (most notably your assistance in finally getting us to FBS), there is one thing we want to communicate to you regarding the potential scheduling of UNCC in football. If there is any avenue for us to get around ever having them on our schedule, please consider it. As ASU supporters, of many levels and durations, we simply do not understand why our administration seems to be so determined on getting them on our schedule. A game, series, or, even worse, a “rivalry” with UNCC is so unappealing that it just seems surreal that it would be made a priority. We have waited years, and in some cases decades, to become FBS. We’ve put up with former administrations who didn’t care to move our athletic programs forward while, instead, they just maintained a “status quo” mentality - at best. We've been the biggest supporters of ASU Football but, while being all we could be in I-AA and FCS, we’ve dealt with being less than we could be as a College Football program. Plenty of years have gone by dreaming of the day we would be FBS. We visualized reestablishing annual games with ECU and Wake, and starting new games, or even rivalries, with other traditional programs. Now that we’re finally here, it seems the main focus has been in trying to schedule UNCC, while hearing nothing about any other potential games.  There was a recent article in the Winston Salem Journal, regarding starting the Wake/ASU game again, where you were quoted as saying there had been no dialogue between ASU and Wake.  Yet, we continually hear about an effort to schedule UNCC. 

We understand that it takes a lot of hard work to finalize a schedule, and just contacting another school doesn't mean a game, or games, will happen. However, it is our hope that more effort is being made on scheduling ACC, SEC, American Athletic, or even top tier CUSA teams, than is used in trying to schedule UNCC. Approaching UNCC should come only after most all other options have been exhausted. As a matter of fact, there are no other regional FBS teams that come to mind that we would want to schedule less than UNCC.

For all of us who had hoped for FBS, our desires were finally met.  Thank you very much for your efforts in that.  However, with all this talk of a potential game(s) with UNCC, it has become very disheartening and demoralizing.  We didn’t endure all those years in FCS, to finally be FBS, only to schedule UNCC!!

Sincerely,

ASU Football Fans and Alumni