Cal football schedules home-and-home with San Jose State for 2019, 2023

The California Golden Bears continue to stack up their future schedules, and this opponent will be of the local variety. The San Jose State Spartans are back on the menu! Cal will host San Jose State in 2019 and then move on over to San Jose  in 2023 (now THIS is the game I could get behind rescheduling for Levi's Stadium). It will be the first time Cal has played San Jose State since 1996.

Interestingly, it's once again a straight home-and-home series instead of a preferred 2 for 1 arrangement between Cal and mid-major schools. The Bears have a 2-for-1 series with with Nevada to wrap up, but also did recently put together a home-and-home package with San Diego State for 2015 and 2016. It looks as if Cal is looking to strengthen regional ties by playing the other California schools regularly. I would prefer if we got more home games out of the package: Stanford has stacked up on San Jose State home meetings regularly to get their local FBS flavor. Felt like we sold ourselves short here.

Cal now has their B opponent for 2019. The Bears are traveling to Auburn that season. They will need a B opponent for only 2017 in the near future--they'll be traveling to BYU in 2018.

Here is the official press release.

Cal, San Jose State Announce Home-and-Home Series

BERKELEY – California and San Jose State, who have not faced each other since the 1996 season, will resume competition with a home-and-home series in 2019 and 2023, the schools announced Wednesday. Cal will host San Jose State at Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium on Sept. 14, 2019, and the Golden Bears will visit Spartan Stadium on Sept. 16, 2023.

The Bay Area schools first played in 1899, with the Bears owning a 29-6 series lead. Cal has won the past nine games between the schools, most recently a 45-25 decision on Sept. 7, 1996, in San Jose. The last matchup in Berkeley resulted in a 40-7 Cal victory on Sept. 23, 1995.

"Anytime you can schedule a home-and-home series with a formidable local opponent it is good for both universities and their fan bases, as well as football fans in the area," Cal head coach Sonny Dykes said. "Cal and San Jose State both have football programs rich in tradition and history, and we are excited to have them returning to our schedule."

Next fall, Cal will host non-conference opponents Grambling State Sept. 5 and San Diego State Sept. 12 before traveling to Texas Sept. 19.

Cal’s complete 2015 schedule can be found here, while full schedules for future years will be announced by the Pac-12 Conference at later dates.

California Future Non-Conference Football Opponents

2015 – Grambling State Sept. 5; San Diego State Sept. 12; at Texas Sept. 19

2016 – South Dakota Sept. 3; at San Diego State Sept. 10; Texas Sept. 17

2017 – at North Carolina Sept. 2; Weber State Sept. 9, 1 TBA

2018 – North Carolina Sept. 1; at BYU Sept. 8; Idaho State Sept. 15

2019 – San Jose State Sept. 14, at Auburn Sept. 21, 1 TBA

2020 – TCU Sept. 5, Auburn Sept. 19, 1 TBA

2021 – at TCU Sept. 11, 2 TBA

2022 – 3 TBA

2023 – at San Jose State Sept. 16, 2 TBA

All dates subject to change