Spartans’ football has a truly great day
SJSU cracks AP Top 25 and is guaranteed a bowl bid by conference
Sunday was the best day for San Jose State football since ... possibly ever.
The Spartans cracked the Top 25 rankings for the third time in 70 years, learned they would be the home team in the Mountain West championship game Saturday against Boise State, and were guaranteed a bowl bid by the conference.
The latter two should have come as no surprise to the Spartans, The ranking — 25th in the Associated Press poll — could be considered overdue by a week or two. San Jose State, 6- 0 for the first time since 1939, finally broke through in the minds of enough voters by beating a 6-1 Nevada team Friday night.
SJSU had not been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 since the end of 2012 season when the Spartans went 11-2 under coach Mike MacIntyre and were No. 21 in the final poll. Their only other appearance in the national rankings came in 1975 when they were
20th in the United Press International poll after going 9-2 under coach Darryl Rogers.
The Mountain West confirmed Sunday that SJSU had won the right to be the home team when it faces Boise State (5-1 overall, 5- 0 Mountain West) for the conference championship.
Unfortunately for the Spartans and their long-suffering fans, “home” is 528 miles away in Las Vegas. Because of Santa Clara County’s ban on contact sports, the game will be played at UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium, where the Spartans practiced and played last week.
“We will miss hosting this game at CEFCU stadium in front of our families and fans,” SJSU athletic director Marie Tuite said in a statement. “However, we know the Spartan Nation is watching and listening from afar.”
Coach Brent Brennan’s team has been on the road since Dec. 3 when it traveled to Hawaii for a game that was to have been played in San Jose. From Honolulu, the Spartans went to Las Vegas and set up camp.
The championship game against Boise State is essentially a rescheduling of the Nov. 28 matchup that was canceled the morning of kickoff due to a positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing in the Broncos’ program. It was to have been San Jose State’s first game on a major television network since 2006, but instead it marked the second cancellation in as many weeks for SJSU — both due to opponents’ virus status. Now, with a 1:15 p. m.
kickoff on FOX, the Spartans will have a national audience for the first conference championship game in their history.
“It should be a heck of a football game, and it’s awesome that our players have earned the right to be in it,” Brennan said of the matchup after Friday night’s win. “It’s so awesome to say, ‘ Hey, guess what we’re doing next Saturday night? Yeah, we’re playing for the conference championship.’ ”
Win or lose, the Spartans’ historic season will continue. The Mountain West announced Sunday afternoon that both Boise State and San Jose State will be placed in bowl games.