The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 24, 2013

As expected — or, more accurately, as feared — the 5A Inland Empire League will only get one berth to the state football playoffs this fall.

Each year since Post Falls moved up to 5A in 2006, increasing the league to four teams, North Idaho has received two berths to the state football playoffs.

It’s a piece-of-the-pie thing, the District 3 schools reasoned, and the North schools were getting too much pie in recent years. But that explanation doesn’t make the North feel any better.

“The state of Boise ruled that we only get one berth,” Lake City football coach Van Troxel said. “Even though Coeur d’Alene won two straight state championships (in 2010 and ’11), and played for a third (last fall), and we were in the semifinals. They don’t care about what’s equal or right, they just care about themselves.”

District 3 schools went 0-4 in the first round of the playoffs last fall, including losses by Eagle at home to Lake City, and by Rocky Mountain at Coeur d’Alene.

IN SOME football classifications, such as 5A, the Idaho High School Activities Association oversees the semifinals and championship game. How the teams get up to that point is up to a vote of the 5A schools. Each school gets one vote — from an administrator, not a coach — on what the quarterfinal format should be, as well as the allocation of playoff berths to each region (some divisions choose to add a play-in round where the winners advance to the quarterfinals).

In this case, the District 3 schools figured that, over a two-year period, the North was getting a total of 100 percent representation to state (2 teams out of 4 each year, 50 percent each year). But District 3 was only getting 40 percent (4 teams out of 10) each year, for a total of 80 percent.

(Eastern Idaho added two 5A teams this year, for a total of five, and received two berths. In 2011, with just three teams, they also got two.)

Anyway, to even things out, the District 3 schools figured if the North got just one berth in 2013 and District 3 got five, that would come closer to evening things out, percentage-wise, over a two-year period.

So, with District 3 getting 10 votes, and the two other regions (the North and the East) getting only nine total, you can tell where this was headed.

The result — District 3 will get five teams into the state playoffs this fall. North Idaho will get one, eastern Idaho two.

THE NORTH proposed, at least for this year, a 12-team playoff starting with a play-in round for Week 9 of the regular season. That would have meant all the 5A schools started with a game during Zero Week (the week before most teams begin their season), then played through Week 8.

The Boise schools objected to that, in part because they would be on the second year of a two-year scheduling cycle, and it would mess up a lot of teams’ schedules.

Maybe in 2014, they said, when a new scheduling cycle begins.

“We’re not very happy,” said Troxel, whose Timberwolves have made the state playoffs each of the last 16 seasons — a streak that will especially be in danger this fall, with just the one playoff berth for the North. “They decide what’s best for them. We proposed (an expanded playoffs). You can have your seven or eight teams, but give us a chance to show what we’ve got.”

However, things could get worse for the North before they get better. It’s possible Nampa and Columbia of Nampa could move up to 5A in 2014, when the new two-year classification cycle begins, as could Kuna. And if Emmett drops down from 4A to 3A, Bishop Kelly could opt to move up to the 5A Southern Idaho Conference, rather than stay in a depleted 4A SIC.

And Bonneville, of Idaho Falls, might also move up to 5A.

A classification meeting will be held after the winter state tournaments, with pretty much everything from number of classifications to the enrollment numbers in each class open for discussion.

Meanwhile, the 5A IEL will still have just four teams.

The North Idaho teams already have an uneasy feeling toward the Boise schools, though you can understand where Boise is coming from. With so many 5A schools down there, they have no need to travel to North Idaho for nonleague football games — they can fill a schedule just with teams in their backyard.

Meanwhile, North Idaho teams are forced to scramble every year just to fill their schedules. If they want to play the Boise teams, they have to travel south.

So this won’t help with those feelings.

“If we need to expand it, then let’s expand it,” Troxel said of the 5A postseason in football. “But let’s get the best teams in the playoffs.”

•••

Fortunately, the 5A IEL girls basketball championship will not be decided by vote — it will be determined on the court when top-ranked Coeur d’Alene (15-3, 4-1) travels to No. 2 Post Falls (17-1, 4-1) on Friday at 7:45 p.m.

Coeur d’Alene won the first meeting Jan. 8 at home, jumping out to a 12-0 lead en route to a 47-41 victory.

The winner will host the first night of play in the 5A Region 1 tournament Feb. 1, and will be the host team if the two teams meet again at regionals.

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.