Todd Graham hot seat? ASU ends 4-year streak of contract extensions

Todd Graham had gotten a seemingly automatic one-year contract extension after or during each of his first four seasons as Arizona State’s head coach, which had included two bowl wins and two 10-win seasons.

That’s ending after two losing seasons, the Arizona Republic reports, though Graham’s boss isn’t explicitly connecting the change with Graham’s recent record.

Graham received one-year contract extensions in September 2013, June 2014, September 2015 and June 2016, keeping his contract length at its original five years. Now, he will have four years left on his contract going into this season and three after the 2017 season.

ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson said a contract extension for Graham is not mandatory although his contract reads: "If grounds do not exist for termination for cause, ASU will ask the board to extend coach's contract for one additional year following completion of the 2016 football season."

We didn’t have Graham on this list of 10 hot seats entering 2017 — partly because Vegas hadn’t set season expectations for ASU yet, like it had for most of those other coaches — but it sounds like it might be time to include him.

Complicating matters: USC’s finally righted itself in the Pac-12 South, and UCLA might not be far off, if it can stay healthy. ASU’s in danger of finishing last in its division this season after falling to 2-7 in-conference last year. And rival Arizona could be in the market for a new coach as well; we’ve seen some quick trigger fingers in recent years as the coaching carousel moves further and further into the season.

Whether he’s able to turn this thing around or not, most Sun Devils fans don’t expect him to remain with the program beyond the next five years anyway.