THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott, March 26, 2014

It might seem like a step back, and it is in some ways, but with North Idaho College athletics soon to be moving from the NJCAA Scenic West Athletic Conference to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges, they could be right where they need to be.

WITH THE exception of volleyball, men's and women's basketball, teams will be moving into the NWAACC starting in the fall, whereas the other three will begin play there in the 2015-16 season.

Sports like soccer - which the Scenic West Athletic Conference does not have a league for - won't be affected, as NIC played a majority of those NWAACC schools before advancing to regional tournaments.

They won't get the opportunity to play for national championships, but with as competitive as the NWAACC tends to be in that sport, it might be just as tough getting through that league tournament.

Teams won't have to travel to Wyoming for a couple of games to start the season. They still could, but the chance of playing a little closer to home almost sounds like a win-win deal.

When it comes to softball, NIC has had some success playing against other SWAC schools, but it might be in their best interest to make that move.

NIC was scheduled to host weekend series Feb. 21 against Snow College and Feb. 28 against Western Nevada of the SWAC. Both had to be moved from Coeur d'Alene due to wet conditions to Moses Lake, where conditions were a lot better.

Only on Sunday did the team finally get on the field at home, splitting a doubleheader against Skagit Valley.

While NIC starts the season in February, teams in the NWAACC don't get things going until March, with plenty of times for the fields to defrost, dry and get them ready to play on - sometimes.

Wrestling will remain as is, as NWAACC schools compete alongside those in Region 18 for bids to the national tournament.

WHERE THIS move might hurt the most is both the men's and women's basketball teams, which have been nationally ranked in previous years.

From those teams have been a bunch of talented players that have landed Division I scholarships to continue their playing careers beyond the NIC stop.

So what will happen now?

With limits on what kind of players the team can recruit, will those numbers start to go down in the coming years, or will the emphasis be more on finding talent in the surrounding areas?

Games with teams within the SWAC can still be scheduled, but chances are that they won't get around to playing everyone. As long as they're still scheduling teams like Southern Idaho and Salt Lake, who they've been competitive with in recent years, it might not make much of a difference.

You might notice it at first, but at the end of the day, it's just games.

Maybe closer, maybe not.

But that's the way it goes sometimes.

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.