Arizona State football schedules wouldn’t be described as anything near bold under Dennis Erickson. They’ve more often resembled one of those heavenly paths paved along the college football landscape to ensure bowl eligibility. Aside from their completion of a home-and-home series with Georgia last year, you’d be hard-pressed to find worthy out of conference opponents in recent times.

Remaining true to pattern, ASU will kickoff the 2010 football season in the bakery, where blood sugar levels will increase with the welcoming of lower division opponents in consecutive weeks. But these cupcakes may differ from others, being that they will satisfy the sweet tooth in September, but may provide a more bitter taste come season’s end.

The Sun Devils were slated to open against San Jose State, but the Spartans have backed out of the deal, accepting more money to become Wisconsin’s early season chump. ASU will also play Wisconsin in week three, but this will come after meetings with FCS opponents Portland State and Northern Arizona. PSU fills the vacancy left behind by profit seeking San Jose State, and could in actuality pose a bigger threat to Sun Devil postseason hopes than the mid-major they’ve replaced.

NCAA rules state that only one victory over a lower division opponent can be counted towards bowl eligibility, so Erickson will now need to achieve at least a split of the remaining ten games to end a 2-year hiatus of bowl absence. A year ago, they poured water on the schedule by dropping BYU for a date with Louisiana-Monroe. The Devils still finished with an overall record of just 4-8, posting their only victories against the Washington schools, Idaho State, and the fresh addition of ULM.

The Sun Devils will visit USC on November 6.