San Jose State has formally announced that it will continue not to decide whether or not it will continue to field a Division I-A football team this year. SJSU football has a 110-year history, and its the program where Jeff Garcia played, back in the early 90s, but the team has recently fallen on harder times ranking 108 out of 117 teams last year, 115th the year before, and in last place in 2000 and 2001. Further compounding the problem, to stay in Division I-A, the Spartans are required to keep average attendance at their games at 15,000 or above. Because the team has done so poorly in recent years, though, attendance is barely at the minimum, and the NCAA has threatened to cut SJSU off.
On the one hand, it costs a lot to play in Division I and some school officials and alumni are grumbling that its not worth the money, especially in light of the draconian Schwarzenegger budget cuts (some money has since come back, but not nearly enough). On the other, theres a long history of football at San Jose State and to cancel the program would be a significant hit on morale and recruiting prestige. (Cancelling the program would also potentially put SJSU in violation of Title IX, which requires gender parity in sports programs).
This was supposed to be the year they decided once and for all if they were going to keep football around at San Jose State but SJSU is also having problems keeping a president around the last president resigned abruptly last year, a couple of candidates were rejected by the Board of Trustees, the search committees top candidate turned down the job, and then the second-choice candidate accepted the job and then resigned three weeks later. In light of these woes, the interim president has decided it might be best to wait until all the administrative stuff settles down before making a final decision on Spartan football.
No matter what happens, we sincerely hope the Spartans have a great season this year (its not inconceivable!). SFist is going to change our name to EssJayist for one weekend and go down and watch a game.
