OREM — As athletic director, Michael Jacobsen is the man at the helm of Utah Valley State athletics as the department continues to undergo and cope with the transformation from the junior college ranks to Division I competition. In no uncertain terms, no one is as qualified to address the future of UVSC athletics as Jacobsen is. Recently, the Deseret Morning News sat down with Jacobsen to talk with him about his vision for Utah Valley State athletics.

Question: The 75-71 victory over Arizona State in men's basketball on Saturday must've been very rewarding for you as the athletic director.

Answer: It was a great day for Utah Valley State. It was a great day for our school and a great day for our athletic program. I think it's based on the whole reason we made this NCAA Division I move, to make our school more recognizable with our four-year degrees and have them credible so this is where kids want to come and go to school. Our thought was the way we could do that was through our athletic program. So I thought (Saturday) was a huge step forward for our school at this time because to go to a Pac-10 school and win on the road, that's a great accomplishment.

Question: How are the efforts to try and find some kind of conference affiliation coming along?

Answer: That's the most-asked question around here. We do something towards it every single day, whether it's talking to a school, to an AD, to a school president, to a commissioner. It's something that I have almost zero control over. They know about us. The conferences that we fit (into), they know about us. They know what we're doing; they know what we're accomplishing. Presidents make those kinds of decisions, that they want to expand and who they want to expand to. We don't have the total package for anybody. A lot of the presidents are looking for well-established research universities.

Question: At any point, do you see a name change on the horizon from UVSC to something like Utah Valley State University?

Answer: I don't think there's any question that the name's going to change. We're going to have university status, and so "university" is going to be in the name. Now whether it's Utah Valley University or Utah Valley State University, I don't know and I don't have any say over. Either one I'm fine with. I feel very confident that we need to keep "Utah Valley." We've created an identity with that. Some people want to change that, thinking we're stereotyping ourselves too much into just Utah Valley. But we're known by that name, and to change that would really set us back quite a bit. UVU or UVSU, either one I'm good with.