The 2004 San Jose State Spartans football team represented

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in the

2004 NCAA Division I-A football season The 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 28, 2004 and ended on Decem ...

. The team played their home games at Spartan Stadium in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. They participated as members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

. They were coached by head coach

Fitz Hill Omon Fitzgerald Hill (born March 28, 1964) is a former American football player and coach and college administrator. Hill served as the head football coach at San Jose State University from 2001 to 2004, compiling a record of 14–33. He was the ...

, who resigned after the end of the season to become a "Visiting Scholar" position at the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sports Business Management Program. The Spartans' 70-63 win over Rice on October 2 set an NCAA record for overall points scored by both teams in regulation.

Attendance issues and possible cancellation of football

The ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'' reported in March 2004 that budget cuts led some faculty members at San Jose State to advocate removing the SJSU football program from Division IA athletics. Locally there was much speculation that San Jose State would drop football due to poor attendance and student-athlete graduation rates.

Read-2-Lead Classic

The "Read-2-Lead Classic" was an attempt to help the football team achieve average attendance of 15,000 to retain

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I-A status. With an emphasis on literacy, the university hosted a series of events in September 2004, including a conversation with comedian

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

and a concert by

Boyz II Men Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan M ...

. The game sold just 11,360 tickets. In contrast, the 2003 Read-2-Lead Classic had an official attendance of over 31,000.

Schedule

Game summaries

At Stanford

Morgan State

At SMU

Rice

At Washington

At Hawaii

No. 24 UTEP

At Nevada

No. 10 Boise State (2OT)

At Tulsa

Fresno State

References

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

San Jose State Spartans football seasons

San Jose State Spartans football The San Jose State Spartans football team represents San Jose State University, San José State University in NCAA Division I NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS college football as a member of the Mountain West Conference. History ...

{{collegefootball-2000s-season-stub