THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Dec. 4, 2013
Postseason tournaments under one roof, makes sense to me.
A coach ditching a football program for another - in the same conference - not quite.
IT DOES not matter what sport it is, there's nothing like a postseason tournament in one central location.
Up to four teams a night, with a cheering section and you've got all the energy you need for a good sports setting.
In recent years, the 4A Inland Empire League and 1A North Star League went from playing their district/regional games at the home of whoever wound up being the higher seed, with winners advancing to the site of the district champion.
Not that those tournaments weren't great in their own right, with added motivation to win the league and not have to travel until the state tournament, but on most nights, if a certain team wasn't playing, chances are you'd miss out on at least one crowd coming in.
This year, for the first time in a long time, the 4A IEL and 3A Intermountain League are scheduled to bring their regional/district tournaments to North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene. The IML used to play its district tournament at NIC, before moving to Lakeland High in recent years.
Even better, as of now, the teams are scheduled to play on the same nights, so you can expect a full house on those nights.
Last year, the North Star League - despite having two separate divisions - came together to get those teams under one roof, and will do the same this year at Lake City High in Coeur d'Alene.
The 5A IEL gets its teams under one roof on the opening night, but once that night is over, they understandably go their separate ways.
A few coaches have said that it really doesn't matter where they play, but having games at a neutral site is a good thing.
We'll find out in a few months if it can really live up to that.
I'M TRYING to understand the logic behind Steve Sarkisian's move from coaching the Washington Huskies to going to take over the program at USC.
On one hand, Washington and USC are in the Pac-12 Conference and competing for the same title right?
Not really, as the Huskies play in the North Division and the Trojans in the South.
They'd play each other in a conference championship, but in the regular season, the schools aren't scheduled to meet again until the 2015 season.
Sarkisian was an assistant coach under Pete Carroll at USC for seven years before eventually going to coach the Huskies, even beating Carroll in their first matchup.
He even went on to say that USC was his dream job, and the position was just too good to pass up.
I hope he's right about that.
Because it sure seems he had a good thing going exactly where he was.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.