San Jose State football trip threatens public health but can’t be stopped, Santa Clara County says

A county official says San Jose State's football trip sends a message that the health of players, families and communities is less important than a game.

San Jose State plans to go ahead with a controversial plan to fly its undefeated football team to Arizona on Sunday for a bowl game as the coronavirus pandemic rages, and Santa Clara County officials say they can’t stop the team from leaving.

County officials believe the university is allowing its team, which returned last Sunday from a two-week stay in Las Vegas, to break the county’s Mandatory Directive on Travel, which requires a 10-day quarantine for anyone entering from more than 150 miles away.

“That’s not leadership,” said County Executive Dr. Jeff Smith. “It sends a message that the health of their players and the community and their families is less important than a football game.”

The school on Thursday argued that its plans for the trip “do not circumvent the county’s travel mandate” but at the same time admitted that the team “will be departing the county before the 10-day quarantine” because the Arizona Bowl game in Tucson on Thursday has mandatory meetings and pre-game activities. If the quarantine were followed, the team would not be able to practice or travel to Tucson until the day before the game.

“The team will travel by private charter to further prevent concerns of the potential spread of COVID-19,” the school said in an emailed statement. San Jose State (7-0) is scheduled to play Mid-American Conference champion Ball State (6-1) in the bowl game. The 22nd-ranked Spartans are having their best season since 1939, defeating Boise State to win the Mountain West Conference title last Saturday.

Players, coaches and staff had traveled from Las Vegas into San Jose International Airport “to allow student-athletes and staff who tested negative for COVID-19 and live out of the county to leave immediately after arriving in the county,” the university said. “Under county guidelines, those individuals who are merely passing through the county do not have to quarantine. Those staying in Santa Clara County will quarantine at home per county guidance. They have been instructed to leave only to get tested and to depart for Tucson.”

Smith said the school and team were “technically” in compliance with the county order. It was unclear whether members of the team who are county residents would be considered out of compliance with the quarantine if they traveled Sunday to Arizona, or whether they or the school could face fines.

“We can’t stop them,” he said. “Just from a practicality perspective we wouldn’t know when or how or who they were or anything like that.” And, he said, “anybody from outside of the county who’s just going to the airport theoretically should be obeying the rules but we can’t really enforce that.”

Smith had said earlier in the week that the team could perhaps be stopped from boarding the plane. “Hopefully, it won’t get to that point,” he said.

The county order defines quarantining as “staying at home or another place of temporary shelter without contact with any persons other than members of one’s own immediate traveling party or one’s household.”

Smith said the Spartan football team, after winning its first Mountain West title Saturday in Las Vegas, could have stayed in that city and gone from there to Tucson, rather than coming home and mixing with others in between.

“The more interaction you have the more likely there is to be (virus) spread,” Smith said. “The whole concept of coming home so you could be with your family is sort of exactly the wrong thing to do.”

Spartans coach Brent Brennan, who agreed to a contract extension Wednesday, defended the decision to come home in a press conference earlier this week. He said the trip home was made with the players’ mental health in mind after being away from their families since July — including a portion of training camp in Arcata on the campus of Humboldt State, and playing the last three “home” games of the year on the road after the county announced its temporary ban on contact sports.

Smith acknowledged that players could now be celebrating the holidays safely, gathering outdoors, wearing masks, not sharing meals, and staying socially distant. “But you can’t know whether that’s happening or not,” he said. “If it’s not happening it’s a very significant risk. I’m really concerned. It’s going to be hard to know when or how (the virus) spread if it does.”

San Jose State plans to have its traveling party tested for the virus Saturday before departing for Tucson Sunday.

San Jose State has fared better than many other college sports schools in handling the pandemic. A recent New York Times survey showed San Jose State had the second-fewest number of cases among people who play and work in its athletic department out of the seven Mountain West Conference schools that fully completed the form. At the time of the survey, SJSU reported eight cases. The school has had a total of 11 cases across the athletic department, a school spokesman recently told the Bay Area News Group.

The university said its football players, coaches and staff “have been diligent while continuing to adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols, including testing multiple times a week.” Travel plans were based on a thorough review of the county directive, the school said.

“The university has been consistently in contact with county officials since the team arrived in July. Our student-athletes and staff have benefited from the county’s guidance, which has shaped the testing requirements and strict protocols we put in place to create a safe environment,” the university said. “San Jose State University looks forward to playing in the Arizona Bowl on December 31.”