Utah Valley Basketball

Okay, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room right up front in this article. Utah Valley University (UVU) made national headlines late this week for an unprecedented brawl, in which fans of their basketball team got into altercations with players from visiting New Mexico State.

A small number of New Mexico State players and UVU fans alike did the unacceptable by brawling with each other, crossing a line that cannot be crossed in sports. The ugly incident has served as a flash-point for debate about the acceptability of fans storming the court in college basketball.

Lost in all the hoopla surrounding the brawl is the fact that UVU just got the biggest win in school history, in any sport. The game should have made national news, but not for the negative reasons that it did.

The positives of this game for UVU far outweigh the negatives, but unfortunately most people aren't taking notice of that.

If you want to focus on the brawl, focus on the fact that—despite NMSU player K.C Ross-Miller chucking the basketball at UVU's Holton Hunsaker as time expired—not a single UVU player let that provoke them. That's a sign of terrific coaching by head coach Dick Hunsaker, and speaks volumes about the character of the UVU players.

Most importantly, this game could very well be a defining moment in UVU history. To understand why, it's necessary to provide some background on not only the school's basketball team, but on the school as a whole.

UVU hasn't been a university for very long. It was a junior college known as Utah Valley State College, only becoming a university in 2008. Enrollment has skyrocketed, thanks to an open-enrollment policy, but brand recognition and school pride remain minimal. 

The problem is the school's location.

UVU is located in Orem, Utah. While that city name may not ring any bells, the city that it's attached to should: Provo, Utah, home of BYU.

BYU is the biggest sports draw in a sports-crazy state, collegiate or professional. The school's athletics program brings in more money and fans than either the Utah Jazz or Real Salt Lake (the two professional sports teams in the state). The importance of BYU to sports in the state of Utah is similar to the importance that the University of Oregon or University of Oklahoma have in their respective states.

And it's not just sports. BYU is also the biggest academic power in the state. While the University of Utah more than holds its own in both athletics and academics, every other university in the state lives to some degree in BYU or the "U of U's" shadow.

Unfortunately for UVU, they don't just figuratively live in BYU's shadow. They literally live in it, as a drive of just ten minutes separates the campuses of the two schools.

Life as a newcomer trying to make it in the territory of a well-established behemoth is not easy, especially in college sports. It's the same reason why few people outside the local area have heard of Indiana University South Bend, which is dwarfed by nearby powerhouse Notre Dame.

While BYU pride is all over the Provo-Orem metropolitan area, there is almost no UVU pride. Even right next to UVU's campus, BYU signs, flags, and other fan paraphernalia are proudly displayed. That lack of pride extends even beyond sports, as many UVU students transfer over to BYU if their UVU transcript is good enough. While that may have been acceptable when the school was a junior college, that's not something a university looking to establish itself can pride itself on. 

In order to become the school it wants to be, UVU has to establish pride among its students, first and foremost. That's where the basketball team comes into play.

UVU has never had a football team, so it falls to the basketball team to garner recognition for the school and be a point of pride for its students to rally around. This season marks the first real chance they have had to do so, as before joining the WAC this season, they were not in a conference with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Although the Wolverines were a Division I basketball team, they were among the handful of outcasts who had no real shot at achieving anything noticeable on the court.

Which brings us back to last night's UVU-NMSU basketball game.

The Wolverines found themselves in a surprising position, standing near the top of the WAC in their first season in the conference. The major obstacle between them and a regular-season conference title was a big one however: the New Mexico State Aggies, the powerhouse team in WAC basketball.

On their home court, the Wolverines fought back and forth with the Aggies—tying the game with just seconds left when Keawe Enos pump-faked beyond the arc and drew a foul on NMSU's 7'5" behemoth center Sim Bhullar, and sunk all three free throws to send the game into overtime. After that improbable comeback, the Wolverines took over in overtime, delivering the biggest win in school history and prompting the rushing of the court that ended with the infamous brawl.

Thanks to that win, UVU now has a real shot at winning the conference regular-season title. That accomplishment, though it may not seem significant to most outsiders, would be a milestone in UVU history. While the brawl itself was terrible, the fact that UVU fans had that much passion is a very good thing for the school. Games like this can be the foundation for a solid program that gets the fans excited and becomes a source of pride for the school and its students.

So while a large chunk of the country shakes their head at UVU basketball after last night's game, this die-hard BYU fan applauds them.

College football is alive and well in the state of Utah. 

The University of Utah just completed its first season in the Pac-12 and used its new conference affiliation to net its highest-rated class of recruits ever. 

BYU had yet another 10-win season, its fifth in the past six years, and had most of its games televised nationally as part of a contract with ESPN that paid the school more for media rights than some conferences receive as a whole. 

Utah State had its first winning season in over a decade and went to a bowl game. 

One major Utah school that didn't have any success in football this past season was Utah Valley University, located in Orem, about 10 minutes away from BYU.  That's because the school doesn't have a football team.

Utah Valley University (or UVU as its known in the state) is unique as far as Utah colleges goes.  It only became a university four years ago, prior to which it was a junior college known as UVSC and served mainly as a gateway for students trying to transfer to BYU or Utah.

Since becoming a four-year university in 2008, UVU has flourished.  It is now the largest public school in the state and second largest university overall in Utah, behind only nearby BYU.  At over 33,000 students, UVU is very much a "big-time" university.

UVU's reputation and image, however, are far from "big time."  It is almost unheard of outside of Utah and inside the state, it is widely viewed as a second-tier commuter school. 

As a BYU student, I am acutely aware of the struggle for respect UVU faces.  It is only a 10-minute (or 15, depending on traffic) drive down University Avenue between the BYU and UVU campuses.  I have had roommates who attend UVU.

Yet you would hardly know that UVU had any students or supporters at all, judging from the local pride.  BYU banners and logos adorn a plethora of local streets and businesses. 

UVU logos are pretty much only ever seen on the school's campus, and the occasional billboard that the school pays for along the I-15 freeway that runs along one side of the UVU campus. 

There is far more support locally for even the University of Utah, which is located an hour away in Salt Lake and is the bitter rival of local favorites BYU.

What UVU needs in order to rally its support base and gain some respect is something that the students and alumni can rally around as a source of school pride. 

The school does have a Division I basketball team, but they compete in the Great West Conference, which doesn't receive a bid to the NCAA tournament.  As such, they receive little support from their fans and don't really have a large effect on school pride.

A football team would provide UVU's students, fans and alumni with the point of pride that the school so desperately needs.  Honestly, UVU's lack of a football team is one of the major contributing factors to its lack of respect.  The sentiment in the state seems to be "If they can't even field a football team, they really aren't that major of a university."

College sports are a HUGE deal in Utah.  The state does have two professional sports teams, the NBA's Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake of MLS.  However, there is no professional football team in a state whose inhabitants are football crazy. 

The largest fanbases in the state easily belong to BYU and University of Utah, who are much more popular and well-supported than either the Jazz or Real Salt Lake. 

So in a state whose inhabitants take college sports, and especially football, very seriously, it is really holding UVU back by not fielding a football team.  Outsiders don't take the school seriously, and even its own students have very little school pride. 

If UVU wants to gain respect in the state and give its students something to be proud of and rally around, it is going to need to add a football team.

The Provo-Orem area could very easily support another football team.  Within an hour's radius of UVU's campus are nearly two million inhabitants, most of which are sports fans (sports are incredibly popular in the Mormon community, which accounts for the vast majority of the residents living in that one-hour radius of UVU). 

At over 30,000 students, the school also has a large student body just waiting for something to rally around and be proud of. 

Recruiting also wouldn't be much of a problem.  Utah prospects such as Chase Hansen and Troy Hinds wound up spurning major football powers such as Nebraska, Michigan, Oklahoma and Stanford in order to stay in-state and play for Utah and BYU, respectively.  There is plenty of local talent in Utah.

In addition, the Utah schools all have recruiting pipelines in the major recruiting centers of California and Texas, as well as nearby Arizona, Nevada and Idaho.  UVU could certainly get plenty of recruits, if they had a football team.  It's a case of "If you build it, they will come."

It's unclear what is holding back UVU from starting a football team.  Sure, they probably wouldn't be on the level of in-state powerhouses BYU and U of U, but they could quickly become competitive with the amount of talent available and the thirst for sports that exists in the state. 

If Utah Valley University wants to be viewed as a major university in the state of Utah and develop a large fanbase, it is time for the UVU Wolverines football team to become a reality.