THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: As for college football traditions, well ... that’s all, folks!

There was a time when the third Saturday in November was a day college football fans looked forward to all season. 

The rivalry games. 

In these parts, that meant Washington State vs. Washington, and Idaho vs. Boise State.

Regionally, that also included Oregon State vs. Oregon and Montana vs. Montana State. 

And nationally, USC-UCLA, Stanford-Cal and Michigan-Ohio State. 

It was a day you could wake up and watch a game from The Big House or The Horseshoe, while you get ready to trek to Pullman to sit in the cold in one end zone and watch Drew Bledsoe launch a deep pass that was miraculously caught in the back of the other end zone by a sliding receiver on a snowy afternoon. 

Meanwhile, as that game approached, you were keeping tabs on the Idaho-Boise State game, a rivalry once dominated by the Vandals, but in recent years so controlled by the Broncos that the folks in Boise have little interest in even playing the game again. 

And also, checking in on USC-UCLA and Stanford-Cal, as those games often also had a bearing on who would represent the Pac-10, or Pac-12, in the Rose Bowl. 

You remember the Pac-12? Or the Pac-10? Or even the Pac-8? 

(You remember Uncle Joe? He was the one afraid to cut the cake.) 

MONEY (and greed) changed all that, of course. 

The Apple Cup (WSU-UW) and The Game Formerly Known as The Civil War (OSU-Oregon) are now played in September, if at all, where the anticipation for those games builds for minutes, not weeks, if even at all. 

(Oh yeah, you’re thinking. Those games WERE played this year. Who won?) 

The Montana-Montana State game is one of the few rivalry games remaining on this third Saturday in November.  

That game is still meaningful, both dividing the state and bringing it together at the same time — state pride, a conference title, yada yada, back when that stuff used to be important. 

Now, on this third Saturday in November, Idaho plays Idaho State. Two teams from the state, yes, though the Vandals are from the State of North Idaho and the Bengals are from the State of Eastern Idaho. 

With Idaho’s return to FCS, the teams have only started playing each other again — for years, they were in different divisions, just like now they represent other “states.” 

Idaho-ISU seems like more of a forced-marriage rivalry for now, but we’ll see if it changes in the future. And change tends to happen in college sports, whether we want it or not. 

And, on this third Saturday in November, rather than playing in the Apple Cup, Washington State visited James Madison. Not the fourth president of the United States (1809-17), and not Jimmy Madison, a forward for the Utah Utes in the late 1980s (and who, sadly, died in 2020), but the surprisingly ranked Dukes of Harrisonburg, Va.  

And, on this third Saturday in November, Boise State played ... ah, who cares? 

OK, we might care a little more next year, when WSU and BSU end up in The Conference Formerly Known, and is Somehow Still Called, the Pac-12. 

(Wouldn’t that be something if, in the future, the third Saturday of November featured Washington State vs. Boise State, instead of Washington State vs. Washington and Idaho vs. Boise State?) 

Which brings us to ESPN College GameDay. 

NATURE CALLED for Miss Bella, my 15 1/2-year old wiener dog, at roughly 6 a.m. on Saturday morning. 

So, while we were up, why not flip on the TV and catch the opening to College GameDay, and check out the folks at the World Wide Leader hyping that classic Big Ten Conference showdown between USC and Oregon, instead of visiting Big Sky country, to celebrate Cat-Griz, or the “Brawl of the Wild,” whatever you prefer to call the Montana State-Montana football game. 

Sadly, after just a few minutes, it was time to change the channel. 

It was hard to keep watching the folks on TV acting excited to be back in a place they were just in last month, when they had the chance to entertain the good folks of Missoula. 

Fortunately, there were other options on the tube — like Bugs Bunny and Friends on MeTV. 

Hmmm, the choices ... 

Rece and Kirk and Pat and Nick and Desmond, or Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and Sylvester the Cat. 

I guess there was a kinda/sorta football angle to the legendary cartoon show. 

One of the commercials featured Ty Pennington — unfortunately not the Northern Arizona quarterback, but the Extreme Makeover Home Edition guy — pitching a home warranty, not singing the praises of the Big Sky Conference. 

Oh, the symbolism. 

On one channel, a grown man had taken his shirt off not five minutes into the show, on a still pitch-dark Eugene morning, while the others around him probably didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically, or cry. 

On the other, Wile E. Coyote was plotting to drop an anvil on the Roadrunner. 

Maybe things haven’t really changed that much over the years. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.