I have to hand it to Arizona State University President Michael Crow. He needed something innovative and meaningful for President Barack Obama, and Crow needed it quick, as the initial criticism for refusing Obama an honorary degree had escalated into a national avalanche in just 24 hours.

And Crow managed to come up with an honor for Obama when the president speaks to ASU graduates on May 13 that will matter more than in the long run. It will just take a while for Crow and the rest of the ASU administration to remove the egg on their faces.

As Tribune writer Ryan Gabrielson reported Saturday, Crow decided to rename one of ASU’s biggest scholarship programs for Obama. Currently called ASU Advantage, the state-funded scholarships covers most of the costs of attending the university (tuition and fees, text books, room and board) for every freshman from Arizona whose family makes less than $25,000 a year. The scholarships are funded, in part, by those tuition hikes that ASU and the Arizona Board of Regents have approved in the past few years.

The mission of these scholarships, tapping the dollars of wealthier residents to support the education of those with fewer means, certain fits Obama’s governing philosophy. My guess is Obama will be rather pleased with the notion of hundreds or thousands of ASU students associating their free-ride college years with his name. It’s an honor far better than a pretend doctorate that would be tossed into a trunk with all of those other pieces of fancy paper he’s likely to receive from various groups in the next four years.

Of course, it would be far easier to see the scholarship renaming as an honor if ASU had made such an announcement before The Associated Press disclosed that an academic committee had decided Obama doesn’t deserve an honorary doctorate because he hasn’t been in office long enough.

Crow had to rush out the decision over the weekend after the AP story inspired the Tribune editorial on Thursday, which in turn was picked up by political blogs across the country that just skewered Crow and ASU. By Friday morning, Crow already was working on some way to stop the furor before it irretrievably damaged local enthusiasm about Obama’s May appearance.

By Friday evening, the Arizona Guardian web site was quoting Board of Regents member Fred DuVal as saying Obama would get an honorary degree after all. But I found that hard to believe, as that move would been a huge insult to the academic committee and would have detracted from whatever credibility this type of honor usually offers.

So Crow came up with a better alternative. I expect someone will question why a prominent scholarship program is to be permanently named for someone who has no direct ties to ASU or Arizona. But Obama supporters can no longer claim he’s been slighted by ASU.