The San Jose State athletics department has put the health and safety of the university's football program and residents of several counties at risk by moving players and staff to Humboldt State to practice for the upcoming season.
In a Sept. 30 news release, SJSU Athletics announced the plan to move 135 players, coaches and support staff to Humboldt State. The team will remain at HSU until Santa Clara County Public Health’s guidelines align with the team’s need to practice for the new eight-game season announced by the Mountain West Conference.
This means SJSU Athletics decided to prioritize making money by participating in this upcoming football season over the well-being of the community and the HSU residents.
However, Lawrence Fan, associate athletics director for football communications and special projects, and offensive tackle Jack Snyder revealed in an interview with the Spartan Daily that the football team would be staying at HSU for only one week of practices. This contradicts the original three-week stay in Arcata which SJSU Athletics suggested in the Sept. 30 news release.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, travel increases your chances of contracting and spreading COVID-19.
Head coach Brent Brennan also revealed in a news conference Tuesday that 141 individuals, not 135 as previously stated, were transported to HSU.
The primary goal of transporting 141 people more than 300 miles? To avoid budget cuts by playing a football season at all costs, even at the expense of the health and safety of student-athletes.
SJSU is currently looking at a $92.7 million budget deficit, with athletics making up $3 million of the deficit according to the August 2020 update on the CSU Operating Budgets webpage.
Yet, the athletics department still spends its budget on this move to Humboldt.
“Based on current projections relative to length of stay at Humboldt State University, SJSU estimates expenses -- including meals, housing, use of their facilities, and round trip bus fare -- will fall between $100,000-$150,000,” said Kenneth Mashinchi, senior director of media relations in an email. “All costs for temporarily relocating to Humboldt State University will be paid for through the SJSU Athletics' budget, similar to all football expenditures.”
If someone asked the coaches and players why the team is going to Humboldt, they would most likely say it's to prepare for the upcoming season.
This is because the athletics department heavily relies on revenue from the football program. The money the team makes through games and donations is used on needless things like the CEFCU Stadium scoreboard, which cost the department roughly $1 million, according to a 2011 article from the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
SJSU football made over $32 million in revenue between 2018 and 2019 according to an NCAA finance report. The SJSU athletics department is desperate to garner income by competing in the Mountain West Conference this season because it has such high costs to cover, like the CEFCU Stadium renovations which are projected to cost $40 million.
Nonetheless, by moving a large number of people to a different county in order to conduct player-contact practices, SJSU Athletics is saying that money is worth more than the well-being of its players, coaches, staff and the HSU community.
Santa Clara County alone reported more than 21,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the County’s public health website. Meanwhile, Humboldt County reported 524 cases as of Tuesday, according to its public health website. These numbers are different largely because of the contrasting population densities in each county. However, two football players tested positive for COVID-19 as asymptomatic cases in more than two months of testing, according to an SJSU Athletics news release from Sept. 30.
With this in mind, transporting that many staff members, coaches and student-athletes puts both of these counties at a higher risk for new COVID-19 cases.
To ensure the safety of everyone involved in the move, the SJSU athletics department explained it would test the players, coaches and staff once a week at HSU according to a Sept. 30 news release.
Yet, this promise by SJSU Athletics actually fails to fulfill the Mountain West COVID-19 testing guidelines. In a Sept. 25 news release, the Mountain West Conference stated it requires all football players, coaches, trainers and other staff that are on the field to be tested three times per week.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s FAQ page, someone can still test negative in the early stages of infection and later test positive in which they will have unknowingly infected individuals they come into contact with during that entire week between tests. Similar to Mountain West Conference’s protocol, SJSU Athletics would have to test members of the football program every day in order to ensure the safety of everyone transported and the community at HSU.
It is already becoming apparent in the NFL that even with constant testing and a COVID-19 injured reserve list, players are still being infected because their safety is not deemed as important as the profits made from the games.
According to an Oct. 3 Associated Press article, a total of 20 coronavirus infections have broken out among several NFL teams. The Tennessee Titans reported 18 COVID-19 cases within the team, but instead of the league canceling the Titans’ Sunday game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they just rescheduled it.
The New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs each reported one confirmed COVID-19 case on Saturday including Patriots quarterback Cam Newton. However, both teams still played their scheduled game against each other Sunday.
The Mountain West Conference and the SJSU athletics department need to take the health of its players seriously because the infection rates of traveling NFL teams serve as an example for the future of collegiate players and teams in the conference. SJSU Athletics is only increasing COVID-19 exposure risk to both San Jose and Humboldt communities by moving the entire football program to HSU just so it can avoid Santa Clara County’s COVID-19 public health guidelines and make a quick buck.
