SJSU, Stanford search for alternate plans
While one Santa Clara County college football team searches for its new home, another one has found a solution to the county’s ban on playing and practicing contact sports.
Stanford is expected to move its football team to the Pacific Northwest in response to the county’s three-week ban on contact sports, a Pac-12 source told our Jon Wilner.
T he exact location is not yet known, or possibly has not yet been determined.
Washington head coach Jimmy Lake thinks the Cardinal may be headed to Seattle: “From what I understand, they’re researching facilities in the northwest to be able to practice and prepare to play their game up here in Seattle on Saturday,” he said Monday.
Stanford (1-2) is scheduled to play at Washington on Saturday and against Oregon State on Dec. 12.
San Jose State sports administrators spent Monday canceling basketball games and trying to find a place
for the school’s undefeated football team to practice and finish the rest of the Mountain West Conference season.
Athletic director Marie Tuite said administrators would have a plan within the coming days for football and basketball in response to the tough new restrictions.
Stanford football
The game against Oregon State was to have been played at Stanford. Now it could become a home game for Oregon State, played in Corvallis, or it could be played at Stanford’s temporary home in the Pacific Northwest.
The Pac-12 also plans to have teams play Dec. 19, though matchups have not been announced. Stanford is coming off a thrilling win in the Big Game sealed on a blocked pointafter kick that would have seen Cal tie the game in the final seconds.
Monday, Santa Clara County executive Jeff Smith reiterated frustrations with sports teams based in the county for making plans to relocate, including the San Francisco 49ers. Smith added that he anticipated the three-week ban on contact sports will be extended.
“Historically, sportsmanship has been about building a team and protecting that team,” he said. “Coaches, managers and owners used to want to protect their players from harm. Those values seem to have been placed on hold during the COVID pandemic. If leaders want to protect their teams and communities, they should not play anywhere until it is safe. One might envision a reemergence of team-building if the teams spent their time building a COVID relief fund for the community rather than trying to put the community at more risk.”
San Jose State football
The Spartans (4- 0), who were off Monday, have little time to prepare for Hawaii (3-3) this weekend after having the past two games canceled because of COVID-19 issues.
Coach Brent Brennan said Hawaii presents “an incredible challenge while we figure out where we are going to practice, where we are going to play. So there is no shortage of challenges for us to face and overcome.”
Santa Clara County’s new COVID-19 restrictions went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday and will last until Dec. 21. The guidelines, announced Saturday, include a three-week ban on all professional, collegiate and high school sports, a mandatory quarantine for those traveling into the region from more than 150 miles away and new capacity limits for indoor businesses. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested Californians could face a more restrictive stay-at-home order in the coming days.
SJSU officials canceled the season opener Wednesday night for the men’s basketball team because playing at Pepperdine in Malibu is beyond the 150-mile travel radius. Tuite said the Spartans would have had to quarantine for 14 days if they made the trip.
The team has three scheduled home games on Dec. 6, Dec. 9 and Dec. 18 that need to be moved or canceled.
The women’s basketball team had five scheduled games set for the next three weeks, including four at home. One has already been called off — today’s game against USF — and more cancellations or relocations could come soon.
The football team, off to its best start since 1955, has faced one coronavirusrelated obstacle after another. It had its two most recent games canceled because of COVID-19 issues, including one Saturday at Boise State. The Spartans did not learn about the cancellation until after arriving in Idaho. The team also did not play Fresno State the previous week because the Bulldogs had to cancel.
San Jose State was scheduled to end the regular season at home against Nevada (5-1) on Dec. 11. Like the Hawaii game, that contest must be played outside Santa Clara County.
The Spartans also cannot play host to the Mountain West Championship on Dec. 19 should they reach the finale.
Tuite said Humboldt State, the place SJSU trained before the season started, is on her list. But Hawaii currently is not, despite being home to the Spartans’ next opponent.
She told the Bay Area News Group that the school is considering “just about any stadium that can handle the media and TV requirements. That’s the big challenge — the infrastructure of the stadium.”
Santa Clara basketball
Santa Clara University officials are working to secure the Santa Cruz Warriors’ home arena for the men’s basketball team in the wake of county restrictions on sports activities, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said Monday night.
Santa Clara , which opened the season with three consecutive victories in the Bronco Invitational, is expected to play at 2,505seat Kaiser Permanente Arena, said the source who did not want to be identified because the agreement had not been finalized.
Santa Clara has a home game Dec. 12 against Sacramento State and another at San Jose State on Dec. 18. Both of those games will either be canceled or moved.
Also, Oregon State announced Monday that it added Santa Clara to its nonconference home schedule for a game Dec. 23.
The Broncos women’s team began a 14-day quarantine last week because of a positive COVID-19 test. It is unclear where the women would resume practices. Their season opener now is scheduled for Dec. 28 at the University of San Diego.