Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson is finalizing a five-year deal to be the next coach at Utah State, sources told ESPN.

Jacobson’s move will end a 20-year run at Northern Iowa that has included five NCAA tournament appearances.

Jacobson is best known for Northern Iowa’s run to the Sweet 16 in 2010, which included an upset of No. 1 seed Kansas as a No. 9 seed.

But beyond that March moment, he has won 397 games there and established himself a fixture of Midwest basketball.

His hire at Utah State is indicative of that program’s recent success and commitment to the future. Utah State has reached the NCAA tournament in six of the last seven seasons in which the tournament was played. That run of success spans four different coaches reaching the NCAA tournament — Craig Smith, Ryan Odom, Danny Sprinkle and Jerrod Calhoun. (All have parlayed that success to bigger jobs).

After reaching consecutive NCAA tournaments, Calhoun left for Cincinnati earlier this month. That created the opening, and Utah State hunted aggressively with nearly $4 million in buyout money the school is owed by Calhoun and Cincinnati.

Utah State is expected to have significant resources to compete in the Pac-12, which percolates as a promising basketball league anchored by Gonzaga and San Diego State. Both are West Coast powers with recent Final Four appearances.

The hire is one of the first significant moves for new Utah State athletic director Cameron Walker, who came from Tennessee in September. Jacobson had drawn a lot of interest over the years, but had never been tempted enough to move out of Northern Iowa.

The combination of available resources, the platform of the league and Utah State’s tradition of success made the job an attractive one.

It’s a significant loss for Northern Iowa, which averaged nearly 20 wins per season throughout his tenure and also won four regular-season championships.