THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, August 29, 2015

Times are changing on the campus of North Idaho College.

A new conference starting next year as the team makes the transition from the NJCAA in all sports but wrestling to the Northwest Athletic Conference.

And now, after eight years, they’ll transition away from the stopping place for northwest high school basketball teams to show their stuff during the holiday break.

THE ANNUAL Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational basketball tournament will go on this year, but with top teams from the junior college level.

“We thought it’d be a neat thing to do for our teams here,” NIC athletic director Al Williams said. “It’s a lot harder for us to get men’s games during that time of the year.”

NIC will complete its final year in men’s and women’s basketball in the Scenic West Athletic Conference in 2015-16, then move to the NWAC for the 2016-17 season.

“With the league realignment next year, we’re trying to keep some of those rivalries together,” Williams said. “We’re going to bring in teams from the California league, NJCAA and NWAAC.”

The tournament will be a true tournament, with each team playing three games, running Dec. 28-30 at Rolly Williams Court.

Among those committed to play is San Jose City College, which made the elite 8 in the California Association last year.

“They’re always one of the best programs down there,” Williams said. “We’ll have three NJCAA schools (NIC, Sheridan and one to be determined) and four more from the NWAC.”

Pairings for the tournament are being updated.

In previous years, the NIC men’s basketball team has played teams from the NWAC after the high school games have ended.

“It’s nice to get some home games during that time and quality competition in between the holiday break,” Williams said. “We just conference play and have that break, then get back into conference play a little slow due to the layoff, and it’s hard to get back into the swing of things. Playing these games will keep our level of play sharp and parents can come here and watch some games, instead of the players going home for that time.”

And next year, without those SWAC teams on the schedule at least three times, NIC will attempt to keep some of those familiar faces on the schedule, either by playing nonconference games or in the tournament.

“This is going to be something to keep those SWAC rivalries intact,” Williams said. “We’ve got a good rivalry with Southern Idaho, and we’d like to keep playing them and they want to keep playing us.”

COEUR d’ALENE and Post Falls, who have made the tournament a home away from home during the holidays, have already found new homes as the Trojans will compete in the Lake City Invitational and the Vikings will travel to a holiday tournament hosted by Centennial High in Boise.

“It really wasn’t a hard decision to make the switch now,” Williams said. “We were growing with more interest from boys teams, but we’ve missed not having the women’s (prep girls) games. It was just time for a switch. I guess everything runs its course.”

Williams added that the annual Tri-State wrestling tournament, to be held on Dec. 18 and 19, will continue on.

“That’s fine and we’re always turning away teams for that,” Williams said. “If anything, we’re looking for a bigger venue for that to be held in.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer at 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.