The Front Row with MARK NELKE April 29, 2012

This 'n that between sneaking peeks up at the sports department TV to see who just got selected in the NFL draft ...

* If Texas-San Antonio plans to jump to Conference USA in 2013 - after just one season in the Western Athletic Conference - and Louisiana Tech joins them, and Utah State and San Jose State move to the Mountain West - the WAC will be in serious trouble.

UTSA plans to join the WAC this fall, but is scheduled to vote this week to join C-USA in '13 (see story below on this page). At worst, that would leave Idaho, New Mexico State and Texas State (which joins the WAC this fall as well) as the only three remaining football-playing members of the conference one year from now.

If that happens, Idaho and the others could have to hustle to find another league to play in in 2013, or encourage a few more teams to join the WAC.

Or go independent in football. Or - and the Vandals are adamant against doing this - consider returning to the Big Sky Conference.

But what Idaho is thinking right now, nobody knows.

"We are not commenting until everything is final," Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said in an email to the Press.

Which is understandable. Utah State often comes up as a possible addition to the Mountain West. Louisiana Tech in Conference USA makes more geographic sense for them than the WAC does. It would be like asking Gonzaga AD Mike Roth for comment every time Mark Few's name comes up as a possible new men's basketball coach at University of Fill-in-the-blank.

Still, it will be curious to see what the Vandals' plan is, if and when these conference changes become official.

* Let's hope the matchup between Pacific Northwest prep football powers Coeur d'Alene and Skyline of Sammamish, Wash. - scheduled for Sept. 15 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow - lives up at least in part to the hype.

Coeur d’Alene had a couple of games like that on last year’s schedule that turned into duds — a 52-14 pummeling of Skyview High of Vancouver, Wash., and a 55-6 drubbing of Whitney High of Rocklin, Calif.

Skyline has a quarterback who has already committed to USC. Last year, Whitney had a QB who had verballed to Oregon, and a tight end who committed to USC — and the California team fell way behind early and wound up committing numerous personal fouls the rest of the way.

So, though Coeur d’Alene will have plenty of new players in key positions, we’ll see what Skyline brings to the table in 4 1/2 months. One thing you can count on — Coeur d’Alene will come ready to play.

And, in any event, the Vikings have a challenging nonleague schedule this year, which we’ll get into at another time. Likely no 88-12 games, or running-clock games.

• One of the five people being inducted into the North Idaho College Athletics Hall of Fame next Saturday is Mary Anderson, who was a standout at Coeur d’Alene High before becoming a two-time first-team all-Region 18 player for the North Idaho College women’s basketball team.

“She played in the post for us,” recalled Dave Fealko, Coeur d’Alene’s girls basketball coach at the time. “She could play with her back to the basket, and she could jump so well, and she was a pure jump shooter. At Coeur d’Alene she was one of the leaders in the ability to do that for us — just a wonderful, wonderful player. She was a tough person to guard.”

In 1985, she was the MVP of the Region 18 tournament despite the Cardinals losing the title game. In 1986, she led NIC to the Region 18 title and the second NJCAA tourney appearance in program history.

“Mary was very mild, but she was very, very competitive,” Fealko said. “When you put her out on the floor, she was going to go nose to nose with you, as tough as she could be.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.