Illustration by Hanz Pacheco
Updated Oct. 6, 11:40 p.m.
The San Jose State football team will be facing a nontraditional season amid the coronavirus pandemic. There will be no fans allowed in the CEFCU Stadium stands and this upcoming collegiate football season will be eight games rather than 12 according to a Sept. 24 news release from the Mountain West Conference.
Despite the Santa Clara County Public Health Department not allowing the SJSU football team to play, the Spartans’ first game is scheduled for Oct. 24 against the Air Force Falcons at the CEFCU Stadium with limited in-person attendance according to the Mountain West Conference football schedule.
With such unusual circumstances because of the pandemic, SJSU fans are wondering how they can watch upcoming games.
Javan Hedlund, associate commissioner and external communications strategy for Mountain West, said over the phone that the Mountain West signed a six-year TV deal with CBS and Fox in January. He said SJSU football games will be broadcasted through those networks if the Santa Clara County Health Department approves the team to play.
In an Oct. 5 Zoom news conference at Humboldt State, SJSU football head coach Brent Brennan discussed people’s excitement to watch the Spartans play.
“I talk to parents, players, fans, alums, faculty, anyone I bump into. The first question is ‘Will I get to come to the games?’ ” Brennan said.
SJSU hopes to provide a similar experience for regular game attendees and first-year students wanting to experience a Saturday night college football game.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get a lot of them streamed because we have a lot of people that are excited about watching Spartan football,” Brennan said.
Safety Tre Webb said in the news conference that the team appreciates HSU for opening its campus to them in preparation for the upcoming season.
He expressed how the change of venue has been helpful for the team to bond and has further motivated them to start the season.
“We’re so excited for this upcoming season that it doesn’t matter where we play, we’re gonna get after it no matter what,” Webb said.
However, Humboldt community members and public health officials expressed concern because of SJSU’s football team’s sudden arrival.
Lawrence Fan, SJSU associate athletics director for football communications and special projects, said that according to Ben Thienes, SJSU assistant athletics director for football operations, about 141 people including players, athletic management, camera crew and equipment crew traveled to Humboldt. This runs contrary to the 135 people reported to have gone to Humboldt in the SJSU athletics department news release.
The group is staying in HSU’s dorms while quarantining, Brennan said.
“They’re wearing masks 100% of the time,” said Brennan in regards to COVID-19 precautions. “The moments when they’re not wearing masks, they’re getting chewed out by me or one of the other coaches or one of the other teammates.”
In an Oct. 4 phone interview with Moises Caratachea, an SJSU graphic design junior, he said he felt that the high rates of COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area is sufficient enough reason to postpone the season like all the other SJSU sports have.
“The school’s priority should be the players’ health and their communities,” Caratachea said. “The chances of getting sick and furthering the spread of the virus is too significant to ignore.”
Though the team is excited about the upcoming season, some SJSU students feel that the money spent on transporting, housing and renting space for the football team to practice at HSU was a waste.
Caratachea said he personally will not watch Spartan football and does not expect other students to watch games either.
“If you already went to the games in-person before COVID, there was already low attendance,” Caratachea said. “I’d rather see [SJSU] invest and put all those economical resources to something more useful like the health center or student homelessness.”