THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Jan. 15, 2014

You can dwell on losses to a rival as much as you want, but in the case of teams in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, especially the North Idaho College men's and women's basketball teams, there's still plenty of games to be played.

DURING THE conference schedule, teams will play 15 times, facing each other three times before the start of the Region 18 tournament.

Both NIC men's and women's teams are 2-3 in conference play. Through men's games on Saturday, three teams - Utah State-Eastern, Southern Idaho and Salt Lake - are tied for first at 4-1, with North Idaho sitting in fourth and Snow (1-4) and Colorado Northwestern (0-5) behind them.

Colorado Northwestern visits NIC on Thursday, and Utah State-Eastern comes to town on Saturday. It is both schools' lone trip to Coeur d'Alene this year.

Take care of business this week, and NIC is back in the conversation for the league championship. Should the Cardinals lose, it will get a little tougher when they hit the road for their next five games.

"We're not in the place we want to be," NIC men's coach Jared Phay said. "But it's just the first time through. We've got to learn from each game. We'll play these teams again and just learn from it."

Same can be said for the women's team, which trails Salt Lake (5-0), CSI (4-1) and Utah State-Eastern (3-2).

The NIC women have overtime losses to both Salt Lake and Utah State-Eastern in games that, had one more basket fell their way in regulation, could have left the Cardinals at 4-1 instead.

With 10 games remaining, it's anyone's guess what will happen over the next two months of play.

One thing is for certain now - the level of play is going to increase from here on out.

SAY WHAT you want to about Sunday's NFC championship game in Seattle between the host Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, the game should be a classic.

Both defenses are playing at their peak level right now, with the 49ers slowing down Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, one week after beating Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in the freezing cold the previous week in Wisconsin.

All Seattle did was hold off New Orleans in a home playoff game, where the Seahawks didn't play very well on offense once Percy Harvin was injured.

Granted, a win is a win at this point in the year, but it's up to Seattle's offense to keep them in this title fight to me.

San Francisco has played in this game the last three years, winning to advance to the Super Bowl last year.

As San Francisco motivational speaker Ric Flair said during his wrestling days, "To be the man, you've got to beat the man."

We'll find out this weekend if the Seahawks are ready for that next step.

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].