The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT June 27, 2012

Finally.

After years of teasing their fans, the idea of a playoff is going to get a chance to run in Division I college football.

ON TUESDAY afternoon, a group of university presidents approved a four-team college football playoff starting in 2014.

What it means for teams like Boise State and those other BCS busters from previous years - who knows?

In one case, teams like Boise State will have to make sure they don't lose - which is exactly what kept them out of the running the previous two years.

No matter to whom, or where, each game is going to matter.

Gone will be those high intensity games against schools like Wyoming, which make sense as far as location, but as far as trying to cash in for a bowl game, just don't help in the long run.

And just because a playoff is in place, doesn't necessarily mean that it is still going to be the best solution.

The teams will be selected by a committee, much like the way the NCAA basketball tournaments are set, which is a good start.

If those teams in the smaller divisions of college football like the FCS and NAIA can come up with a plan to get a true champion, then whatever comes of this shouldn't be anything less than good.

Those big-time bowls, such as the Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and Rose Bowl, may be altered, with the Rose not featuring the Big 10 against the Pac-12 champion - unless neither figure in the championship picture.

BELIEVE IT or not, it's less than two months from the first high school games of the season.

Two teams (Coeur d'Alene and Lake City) hit the road for football games in southern Idaho on Aug. 24, while Post Falls has to wait until Aug. 30 to host Graham-Kapowsin of Graham, Wash.

With the changes to how teams qualify for the state 5A playoffs, it should be really interesting.

The four teams in the 5A IEL will face off in the final weekend of October, with the top two teams advancing.

Three teams fought for one berth last year in a Kansas tiebreaker, won by Lake City. The other, Coeur d’Alene, won a second straight 5A title.

The only other time I saw a playoff berth determined in a Kansas tiebreaker, weather was definitely a factor.

In 2003, Mullan and Kootenai faced off in Kellogg in a driving snowstorm, something that likely would have canceled the game had either team needed to travel over the Fourth of July Pass.

Mullan won after scoring on a touchdown and getting a stop on defense and eventually finished third in the state playoffs.

Had they been forced to play an entire game, who knows what might have happened, and maybe there could have been a completely different outcome.

At least now, in all levels of football, teams will get a chance to win it on the field.

Instead of by a computer.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].