Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics ESPNU returns to Spartan Stadium for the home opener against Utah. (Photo by Terrell Lloyd)
For the second season in a row, the ESPN family of networks will televise at least two games from San Jose State University’s Spartan Stadium.
As part of the Western Athletic Conference’s ESPN multi-year broadcast contract, the 2009 San Jose State home opener on September 12 against reigning Sugar Bowl champion Utah will be televised live on ESPNU with a 7:30 p.m. (PDT)/8:30 p.m. (MDT)/10:30 p.m. (EDT) start time.
The San Jose State-Utah contest will be the first time the Spartans host a non-conference opponent and current Bowl Championship Series winner in a national telecast. In non-conference network television appearances primarily from 1975 through 1983, San Jose State was a visiting team facing Pacific-10 Conference opponents.
ESPNU will be the first broadcast outlet to televise a 2009 game from Spartan Stadium, now in its 76th year of service to the community, and show off the facility’s new field turf installed this spring. From 1933 through 2008, Spartan Stadium was a natural grass facility.
The September 12 contest is the second San Jose State home game the ESPN family of stations is televising this season. Earlier, ESPN announced the November 8 Western Athletic Conference match-up between the Spartans and Nevada will be the network’s annual Sunday college football telecast for 2009. Game time for the San Jose State-Nevada game is 5:15 p.m. (PST).
In 2008, Spartan Stadium was the site of a precedent-setting three national telecasts, two on ESPN2 and one on ESPNU. Since Dick Tomey took over as San Jose State’s head coach, the Spartans have had seven national or network telecasts, five of them from Spartan Stadium, in the last four years.
San Jose State and Utah are facing each other for the first time since the 1998 season when both the Spartans and Utes were members of the Western Athletic Conference. Utah is a Mountain West Conference member.
Season tickets for the Spartans' six-game home schedule is available by clicking here.
Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics
