Stanford, San Jose State schedule four-game football series beginning in 2025

By Kevin Kelley -

The Stanford Cardinal and the San Jose State Spartans have scheduled a four game, home-and-home football series beginning in 2025, both schools announced on Wednesday.

In the first game of the series, Stanford will travel to take on San Jose State at CEFCU Stadium in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. The Cardinal will return to San Jose 10 seasons later on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2035.

Stanford will host San Jose State twice in a three-year span, beginning on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2026 at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal will then host the Spartans two seasons later on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2028.

Following the passing of San Jose State alum and legendary Stanford head coach Bill Walsh, the Stanford-San Jose State matchup was renamed the Bill Walsh Legacy Game.

Stanford and San Jose State first met on the gridiron in 1900 and have played 67 contests. The Cardinal have won six consecutive games in the series, including 34-13 in their most recent matchup in 2013, and currently lead the overall series 52-14-1.

For Stanford, all four games against San Jose State replace previously scheduled contests against the BYU Cougars. BYU, a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Independent, is joining the Big 12 Conference in 2023 and has been purging opponents from their future schedules.

“We are excited to announce this series with Stanford,” said SJSU Director of Athletics Jeff Konya. “It fits well with our scheduling philosophy of playing quality regional opponents and bolstering our home non-conference contests for One Spartan Nation to experience.”

The Spartans also announced on Wednesday that they have rescheduled their game at ULM in 2028 for Sept. 15, 2029 and their game at Akron in 2024 for Sept. 18, 2032.

Football Schedules

Comments (8)

I’m glad this series is being brought back.
Although I do wonder how this will effect the Mountain West schedules in ’26 and ’28–perhaps Hawai’i will schedule a non-conference game for Week 13 against an independent like Army, UConn, or UMass, or a C-USA school to balance things out?

I do believe this is a 1st for SJSU VS Stanford.

Nowhere in the Spartans VS Cardinal Series so I see Stanford traveling to Spartan Stadium (CEFU).
San Jose State has always traveled to The Farm or Stanford would not schedule them.

Am I overlooking something? SJSU Spartan & Stanford Cardinal Fans let me know if my FB history Research is wrong…

A professional Google search shows that Stanford played at San Jose in 2006, 2001 and 1995.

Stanford won the 95 and 01 matchups. San Jose won the 06 matchup.

Dan-ke Ratface Dirtbag & HeyArnold!,

IMO, a Decade = an Eternity in 1-A FB in the 2000 Teens, 2013 to 2023 between Games. A two for one in the 2020s is progress for San Jose St. Spartans. I realize it’s officially a two for two. The college 1-A Landscape changed so much in only seven Years 2016-2022 that 2035 is in the next Dimension. Fans are only into the end of the second Year of the 2020s.

It’s great that they’ll play each other in consecutive Years, 2025-2026. That will be great for fan Bases for these 2 Years.

IMO, the no fault Coaches take a new Job & players transfer Portal has made 1-A football unrecognizable. Your opinions, thoughts?…

This is great news!! Not only bringing back this rivalry but also making it a home and home series. SJSU was always at a severe disadvantage in this series being made the visitor for just about every game. As a Spartans fan,I always disliked that quite a bit,a true rivalry is always played on a even playing field.