The Front Row with MARK NELKE Nov. 25, 2012

I was watching the Apple Cup the other day when a couple of thoughts entered my mind:

One, is it possible the vaunted Huskies, good enough to be ranked and headed to a bowl game, could cough up an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter to a team with just two victories - and a loss to Colorado to boot?

(Oh wait ... they did.)

And two, what will the emotion in this game be like 10 years from now, when the two teams are in different leagues?

OK, so the chances of that happening are slim, but with all these colleges hopping from one conference to another, as if each league were a bar on Sherman Avenue or in downtown Sandpoint, makes you wonder where everybody will wind up at last call?

THIS WEEK, Maryland and Rutgers announced they were leaving their respective conferences for the Big 10, which will give the conference 14 teams. Of course.

Maryland is one of the pillars of the ACC, a basketball league. Maryland is the place coach Lefty Driesell made famous in the late 1960s by dubbing it "the UCLA of the East."

Maryland was a powerhouse in the 1970s. One of the most memorable games in college basketball was the Terrapins' triple-overtime loss to David Thompson and North Carolina State in the finals of the 1974 ACC tournament - back when only the conference tourney champion advanced to the NCAAs.

The 1980s will be remembered as the Len Bias years in Maryland, and eventually the end of Lefty. The Terps won an NCAA title as recently as 2002.

Maryland also apparently fields a football team as well, one that should get summarily pummeled week in and week out in its new league, with some extra millions in TV dollars to help ease the pain. And the conference benefits by reaching more TV sets on the east coast.

Rutgers will be leaving the Big East, which is a surprise to most of us who had no idea what league they were in in the first place. Can’t wait to watch that budding Rutgers-Indiana football rivalry develop on the Big Ten Network.

ON THE one hand, we’re starting to see that second round of conference roulette that Idaho athletic director Rob Spear has been talking about. Now, whether that game eventually lands his Vandal football program in a better place — better than independent status, better than pulling up tent stakes and slinking back to the Big Sky — remains to be seen.

On the one hand, I get what Boise State is trying to do with its football program — looking for a conference that will give it the most TV money and the best chance to play for a national title — even while the Broncos stuff their other programs in a storage shed somewhere.

But on the other hand, they almost look like they’re chasing their own tails — or worse, chasing the rabbit on the stick like the dogs used to at the Greyhound Park.

Just when the Big East seemed like the place to be, one team (Rutgers) bailed and others are rumored to be looking elsewhere. Then the Mountain West, which the Broncos are leaving at the end of this year after a long, storied, two-year stay, suddenly became a pretty good option after all, money-wise.

(And, quick — try to name the other teams still in the Big East, without relying on Google. Didn’t think so.)

Meanwhile, while its football team prepares to head to the Big East, Boise State tried to stash its non-football teams back in the Western Athletic Conference — the conference they just left, and where not everyone was all that willing to take the Broncos back. Then, when the WAC appeared to be on shaky ground with its sports other than football, Boise State was able to find a home for its Olympic sports in the Big West — which doesn’t offer football anyway.

If that doesn’t work, perhaps the Broncos can call up Kirk Triplett and rent one of those PODS.

IT WOULD be nice if Boise State could swing what Notre Dame does in football — play as an independent.

As it is now, the Broncos play one game at the beginning of the season that everybody pays attention to, then beats up on a bunch of nobodies the rest of the way — save for that one conference game that trips them up every year (Nevada in 2010, TCU last year, San Diego State this year).

I think fans would rather see Boise State play 4-5 really good teams each year, but the rules would have to be changed so that one loss didn’t all but knock a team out of the national title hunt.

It would have to be more like college basketball, where playing a tough schedule is actually helpful.

Like Gonzaga, which plays a murderous preseason schedule, because the Zags know that once conference play starts, they are largely forgotten nationally, save for the two Saint Mary’s games. Plus, fans look forward to watching those nonconference games, and playing those games generally help more than they hurt when it comes to Selection Sunday.

NBC has ponied up to show Notre Dame home football games for the last two decades. Maybe one of the other networks — if not ESPN, then one of the other wannabe sports networks like CBS Sports Network or NBC Sports Network — could make Boise State football “their” team.

IT’S STILL a little funky watching Utah play in the Pac-12, when I grew up watching the Utes in the WAC, and later the Mountain West Conference. But at least Utah is a western team still playing in a western conference.

And try naming all the football teams in the Big Sky, which is up to, what, 23 teams now, stretching from the Dakotas to California.

I get that things change in life, and just deal with it. But it would make sense if change was a little more logical. Boise State playing at San Diego State for the Big EAST title is not logical, and the Broncos playing South Florida is not much better.

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