School officials announced last week they had been notified of back-to-back September cancellations to their 2003 football schedule.
Both Central Michigan and San Diego State University contacted ASU in the past three months to notify them of the cancellations, Athletic Director Gene Smith said in a prepared statement last Friday.
"Canceling games is something that is happening with more regularity in this era," Smith said.
The cancelled games bring the total number of games ASU has been forced to reschedule in the last three years to four. Last year, the University of Oklahoma cancelled a schedule trip to Tempe for this September, forcing ASU officials to cancel a reciprocal trip to Oklahoma last season.
While Eastern Washington and Louisiana-Lafayette were added to the Sun Devil home schedule to make up for the loss of the two Oklahoma games, ASU has only been able to fill one of the two new cancellations, with Northern Arizona University conditionally agreeing to play in Tempe in September 2003.
"When institutions do this to one another," Smith said, "It puts a significant burden on schedule planning and budgeting. This is a subject that NCAA membership must examine further."
Reach Al Stevens at al.stevens@asu.edu.
