UVSC talking a new game

OREM — Top administrators at Utah Valley State College are meeting with NCAA officials and leaders at 10 colleges to discuss the possibility of forming a new athletic conference.

If the the early stage plan to create a new conference is realized, it would mean UVSC, which has been granted Division I provisional status, could cut short its probation period.

Among the proposal's challenges: The schools mulling the move are scattered throughout the country. Teams from Texas, California and Virginia would play Orem-based UVSC.

"It's a long shot, schools from that far apart. It's not cost effective, but at least we're trying," said UVSC Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen, who traveled with college President William Sederburg to Indianapolis to participate in the meeting.

UVSC must go to such great lengths because the school doesn't have a football team — the big reason it's been so difficult to earn an invitation to join a NCAA Division I conference.

"These schools that we're meeting with, there's four schools that have football — out of 11," Jacobsen said.

Sederburg and Jacobsen traveled by plane to Indiana Monday night. They are scheduled to meet with the other colleges and NCAA officials today and return to Utah tonight.

While UVSC officials pursue the possibility of a new conference, they also continue to court representatives of the Mid-Continent Conference, of which Southern Utah University is a member, and the Big Sky Conference, of which Weber State University is a member. Both conferences are division 1-A for football, however.

UVSC is in the third year of a seven-year provisional period the NCAA has mandated.

Normally, the provisional period is five years, but UVSC, which previously competed against junior colleges, was given an extra two years of probation.

The first years were an exploration time to decide whether the school really wanted Division I status, Jacobsen said. The NCAA has higher academic and athletic standards for Division I colleges.

This year, all 14 men's and women's sports teams played against other Division I colleges, mostly with schedules that started the season by playing against nearby schools, and during conference time, against colleges that also have not joined athletic conferences, he said.