Whenever the University of Arizona football team heads to Tempe to play ASU in the Territorial Cup, ASU students camp out on Tempe's A Mountain to prevent any Wildcats from climbing up and painting the giant gold A on the side of the mountain red.
The game is this Saturday, and this year, ASU students blew it.
When students woke up this morning, ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keller says, the A was red. Despite Sun Devils faithful keeping guard on the mountain last night!
Keller says she has no idea how U of A students managed to get up the mountain, paint the 60-foot long A red, and leave without any of the ASU students seeming to notice.
The ASU Alumni Association is in charge of guarding the coveted A but the group's spokeswoman hasn't returned our call. After apparently falling asleep on the job, we can't really blame her.
The U of A Alumni Association claims it is "unaware" of anyone coordinating the paint job, but a spokeswoman for the group tells New Times, "It's not the first time, and it probably wont be the last."
While almost unable to stop laughing after hearing the news, the spokeswoman took a little jab at ASU's paint police.
"You guys up there aren't as protective of your A as we are," she says, referring to a similar A on a mountain near U of A's Tucson campus.
When we told her there were actually ASU students guarding the A when it was painted, her laughter became almost deafening, but she still denied knowledge of the incident.
By 8:30 a.m., members of the ASU Alumni Association had already re-painted the A its original gold color.
If ASU's defense is as inept at guarding the end zone as its students are at watching an enormous A for a few hours, Saturday's game is gonna be a blowout.