Utah State University (USU) is a public land-grant university whose main campus is located in Logan, Utah.
USU's sports teams are known as the
Aggies. Recently, the men's basketball team, under coach Stew Morrill, has become known as a nationally respected program, with several trips to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. USU's men's basketball program has been one of the winningest programs in the country since 2000, winning at least 23 games in each season and appearing in the NCAA tournament numerous times. The football program, which has a rich history (Merlin Olsen an alumnus), has struggled lately, following an ill-fated two-year stint as an independent program and two more years in the geographically distant Sun Belt Conference. Following the decision of the Big West Conference to stop sponsoring football in 2001, USU's other teams remained in that conference until the school was finally invited to join the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 2005. USU had hoped to gain entrance into the WAC for decades prior to 2005.
In recent times, the men's basketball team has won invitations to the NCAA tournament in 1998 (under coach Larry Eustachy), 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 (all under Morrill). Prior to 2006, all of these invitations were a result of winning the Big West Conference tournament. In 2006, the Aggies received an at-large bid to the tournament, after finishing second place in their first season in the Western Athletic Conference and losing in overtime of the WAC tournament championship game to Nevada-Reno. Despite a stellar season in 2003–2004 and a national top-25 ranking toward the end of the season, the Aggies did not receive an at-large tournament bid after being upset in the conference tournament. This decision earned the derision of head coach Morrill, as the Aggies held a 25-3 record and were nationally ranked in the top-25. The most recent NCAA Tournament success was a first-round upset over fifth-seeded Ohio State University in the 2001 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Other men's sports the Aggies compete in include Track and Field, Golf, Tennis, and Cross Country.
Of women's sports at USU, gymnastics has probably been most successful, heading to the post season 26 times including five trips to the national championships. The school also sponsors women's softball, volleyball, track and field, soccer, tennis, and basketball.
Women's basketball returned in 2003 after a fifteen-year absence. At the time, USU was the only Division I program that did not have a women's basketball program besides the mostly male Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel. The women's team has not yet produced a winning season. In 1978 the women's volleyball team won the AIAW national championship, defeating UCLA in the final match. In 1980 and 1981, the women's softball team won the Division I AIAW national championships.
The most used sports venue is the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, where basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics events are held. TV and radio announcers visiting the Spectrum for the first time commonly state that the spectrum is one of the loudest basketball venues in the country with one of the most enthuastic crowds in the country, rivaling Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University. It is a tradition that near the beginning of games the crowd chooses one player from the other team who commits a blatant fowl, taunts the crowd, etc and every time that player touches the ball the entire crowd boos loudly until he passes the ball. This pressure on opposing players created by this tradition has cut many outstanding players down to below average players while at the Spectrum.
The football team plays in Romney Stadium, slightly north and west of the main campus. The stadium had natural grass until 2004, when artificial turf was installed. After multiple losing seasons, head coach Brent Guy was terminated and replaced with Gary Anderson. Gary was most recently the defensive coordinator at the University of Utah.
As of the 2007-2008 season, the Aggies compete in the Western Athletic Conference.
On February 4, 2008 Utah State University Athletic Director Randy Spetman was named the new AD for Florida State University. He had been serving as Athletics Director at Utah State since 2004.
Team Website: http://utahstateaggies.cstv.com
School Website: www.usu.edu
