Spartans like road, for what it's worth
| • | Fresno State A.D. offers apology |
| • | Graphic: Have team, will travel |
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Before transferring to San Jose State from a junior college last year, Charles Pauley had been on two airplane trips.
By the end of this football season, Pauley, who was raised in California, will have traveled to 12 other states.
"Join San Jose," said Pauley, a senior wide receiver, "and see the world."
Indeed, the Spartans' schedule was created with Samsonite in mind. Since 1999, the Spartans will have played 31 of 48 games on the road, including nine of 13 this season.
For every road game, Pauley poses at midfield. His collection can fill a photo album.
"I have ones from Colorado, Hawai'i and Illinois," he said. "It was exciting to take one at Ohio State. My favorite is the one at the (Los Angeles) Coliseum, when we played (Southern California)."
Quarterback Scott Rislov, who was raised in Pierre, S.D., (population 15,000), said he enjoys the uniqueness of each town.
"I'm loving every minute," he said, noting that on some winter days in Pierre, "you're talking negative-40 windchill. Sometimes you're in the middle of a blizzard and you can't see across the street."
The Spartans schedule numerous road games because of, A) the money, and B) more money.
To earn enough cash to support their struggling athletic department, school officials willingly schedule so-called money games. This year, the Spartans received appearance fees of $475,000 from Ohio State and $425,000 from Washington.
Last year, the Spartans relinquished a home conference game to take advantage of the Hawai'i Exemption, which does not require a visiting team to count any game played on the Islands to count toward the NCAA regular-season limit. The Spartans ended up playing five of eight Western Athletic Conference games on the road last year, but used the exemption to squeeze a road trip to Arizona State into their schedule.
For most road games, the Spartans leave Friday morning. For the longer trips, such as tomorrow's game against Hawai'i, they will leave two days in advance. Most of the time, they will travel by airplane, although last year, they went eight hours by bus to Los Angeles for the game against USC.
"It's tiring," Pauley said, "but we're used to it."
Because the Spartans spend Friday nights in a local hotel for rare home games, "I'm always packing and unpacking," Pauley said. "Sometimes, I don't unpack until the day before I leave. Then I throw the things I need in there, and I'm ready to go again."
In each of the past two years, the Spartans opened with four consecutive road games. This season, they will play games on 13 consecutive weeks.
"We look at it as we have 13 weeks to play football," Rislov said. "The other 39 weeks you're looking forward to doing this, so when you have the opportunity to play a game, you can't help but enjoy it."
Rislov said the team looks forward to playing on the road, where "you get the big crowd and the great atmosphere. As a kid, you always dream of playing in front of big crowds, and for me, this is a dream come true."
