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OREM, Utah (AP) -- Utah Valley skipped a few divisions on its way up in college sports.
The Wolverines have completed the largest leap possible, going from a junior college straight to NCAA Division I.
Athletic director Mike Jacobsen learned Tuesday that the NCAA had cleared Utah Valley to lift the "provisional" tag the Wolverines have carried the last six years.
The Wolverines are now officially "D-I" like their neighbors a couple miles up the road at BYU.
"It was hard, but it was worth it, and we're happy to be where we are today," Jacobsen said Wednesday after a news conference.
Once a community college just off Interstate 15, Utah Valley State College officially became Utah Valley University a year ago and fields teams in 15 NCAA sports.
The Wolverines competed as a junior college until 2003, when the NCAA provisional period began. Instead of trying to join Division II or Division III, Jacobsen went straight for the top. The unlikely leap began with an exploratory year in 2002-03, then as a provisional school for the next six years. The Wolverines could compete as Division I, but with limits.
Utah Valley wasn't eligible for the postseason or the NCAA record book. Point guard Ronnie Price, who spent the last two seasons with the Utah Jazz, averaged 24.3 points in 2004-05 and would have been among the top scorers in the country, but he's not listed among the Division I leaders that year because Utah Valley was still provisional.
Now that the Wolverines have shed the provisional label, what they do from here on counts.
"For us before, you're working and you're doing the extra stuff that you know your opponents are doing, but they have the opportunity to have that extra award ahead of them," wrestler Ben Kjar said. "Now that we're here, it's just that much more of a motivation."
Utah Valley started as Central Utah Vocational School in 1941. It grew to become Utah Trade Technical Institute, Utah Technical College, Utah Valley Community College and then Utah Valley State College from 1993 until last summer.
The athletic department has grown along with the school.
Since the Division I transition began, Utah Valley's men's basketball team is 109-62 and never had a losing season. The Wolverines joined the Great West Conference a year ago, and although the league does not have an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, the players know they're at least eligible for an at-large bid.
"They have a chance now to compete at the highest level," Jacobsen said. "It is so huge because that's what it's really all about."
The first non-provisional Utah Valley teams will begin competing this fall in cross country, golf and women's soccer. The Wolverines also compete in baseball and softball, indoor and outdoor track, and women's volleyball.
Each year during the transition, Jacobsen had to show the NCAA that Utah Valley was making progress in areas like financial support and compliance.
"It's been seven years, and in reality, we've needed those seven years to prepare ourselves physically and financially to get us to this point," he said. "It was much harder, much greater than what I thought. You just don't know until you get there."
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
