THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, February 15, 2015

The University of Idaho is one of those rare athletic programs with one program (football) in one conference (the Sun Belt), and most of its others in another (the Big Sky).

And while that's still confusing to some, Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said it's important for the Vandals to remain a Football Bowl Subdivision school in general, and remain in the Sun Belt Conference in particular, for financial reasons - as well as to be able to weather the ever-changing landscape of college football at the highest level.

"For us to do anything else but the Sun Belt right now is too risky," Spear said.

A portion of Idaho's fan base would prefer the Vandals drop their football team back into the Football Championship Subdivision level, and return to the Big Sky in that sport as well.

Spear prefers to stay the course.

The Sun Belt receives money from the College Football Playoff - Idaho's take, in its first year back in the Belt in football, was around $1 million, and figures to increase in the future, especially if the playoff expands.

"And I don't like to play money games, but we are in a situation, being an FBS program, when we play that money game, we're going to generate almost double what an FCS program would," Spear said.

The Vandals have played up to three money games in recent years, with games against the top FBS teams fetching in the neighborhood of $1 million per.

And as the College Football Playoff continues and/or expands, "strength of schedule's going to play a huge role in who gets in," Spear said, "and schools in the Power 5 conferences want to make sure their wins come against other FBS institutions."

He said because of that, future games scheduled between FBS powers and FCS teams "could be in jeopardy."

Spear has often spoke of Idaho football ending up in a "second tier" of conferences - below the Power 5, but above the FCS level. He said he thinks as the Power 5 conferences move further away from the other FBS leagues, that scenario could become closer to reality.

He envisions a league with Idaho and New Mexico State and some of the high-end Big Sky schools (including Eastern Washington, Montana and Montana State) in that second tier.

"I hear all the time from Big Sky Conference officials that there's not a lot of difference between the Big Sky and the Sun Belt," Spear said. "Well if there's not a lot of difference, then let's play at the same level."

He said if that second tier is going to happen, now is the time for Big Sky schools to make their move.

"I think in the future it's going to be really, really hard for FCS programs to transition up," Spear said. "I expect the NCAA's going to make some changes ... it's not going to be as easy as getting to your scholarship limit and having 16 sports and adding 22 football scholarships. I think there's going to be a financial piece to even start the process that's going to be in the millions of dollars, and that's probably going to curtail some of that expansion."

The Big Sky is an obvious improvement over the reshuffled and far-flung Western Athletic Conference in other sports, in terms of shorter travel, less class time lost, and name recognition. Spear said attendance was up with Eastern Washington visited recently, and he expects good crowds when Montana and Montana State come to Moscow next weekend.

And Idaho's men's and women's basketball teams are finding their new league is no pushover. Idaho's men played for the WAC tourney title last year, and the Vandal women won the WAC the last two years.

"It's a better league overall," Spear said of the Big Sky. "No disrespect to the WAC, but the Big Sky that we're in right now from a parity standpoint is a stronger league than the WAC was a year ago."

"We are the only program in the country that is playing FBS football that has all its other programs, sans one - swimming and diving - in an FCS conference," Spear said.

In a recent chat at The Coeur d'Alene Resort prior to a booster function, Spear touched on a few other topics, including ...

* An event center for Idaho's basketball teams.

Spear has long pushed for an on-campus arena, seating around 5,000. He said he's seen a document from as far back as 1969 outlining the need for an arena.

The idea has been on the back burner for years, but Spear said it's more of an "institutional priority" now.

Why now?

"The overall big university (fundraising) campaign just ended, and the university raised $261 million - it had a goal of $225 million," he said. "Now it's time to maybe have a little mini-campaign in-between for some special projects, and the arena falls into that."

Spear said ballpark costs for the arena would be around $30 million.

* Football on the Internet.

In past years, most Vandal football games have been on TV, though they were kinda all over the map. Root Sports. Altitude TV. ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

Last fall, eight of Idaho's games were on something called ESPN3, a web-based channel available to some cable and satellite subscribers, but not others. Time Warner, SuddenLink and Dish? You can watch. DirecTV? Sorry.

Depending on your setup, you could watch ESPN3 on your TV as well as your computer.

As long as the Vandals are on somewhere, Spear said.

"I think it's very important to be part of ESPN programming," he said. "It is nice to be able to have your product on. And the more society moves away from traditional cable ... it's going to gain in popularity."

* NCAA schools opting to offer the "full cost of attendance," which is over and above a full scholarship.

" A full scholarship is tuition, room and board, books and fees," Spear said. "Full cost of attendance is all those things, plus a couple trips home a year, insurance costs, some incidental type expenses ... "

Spear said the full cost of attendance at Idaho is $3,600 more than a full scholarship.

"So if Idaho could find the means to offer full cost of attendance, then all of a sudden we are going to be a very attractive institution, because we're going to be able to provide more to the student athlete," he said. "But to be able to do it, you have to have a revenue side to allow yourself to do it."

He said in the Big Sky and Sun Belt, offering full cost of attendance is optional for each school.

"I have mixed feelings about that (offering full cost of attendance), because I think our scholarships are nice scholarships," Spear said. "Kids that really have additional financial need are Pell-eligible, so they actually receive more money from Pell grants. Obviously you'd like to be able to provide as much as you can for the student-athlete, and not go overboard."

While full cost of attendance at Idaho is $3,600, Spear said at Georgia Southern, whom Idaho plays football against in the Sun Belt, it's more than $8,000.

"You ask what's in it for FCS schools (to move up)," Spear said "If they're in a conference which had more revenue, so they could offer some of, or partial, full cost of attendance, that would put them in a stronger position."

* Playing Boise State in football and men's basketball.

Idaho and Boise State haven't met in football since 2010 - the Broncos' last year in the WAC. Since then, the men's basketball teams have played once per season, at a "neutral" site - either at the Idaho Center in Nampa or, more recently, CenturyLink Arena in Boise.

"Our offer to play them (home and home) is there in football, and same thing for basketball, and unfortunately there's an unwillingness for Boise to play us home and home in basketball, which is why we're playing that game in Boise at a neutral site," Spear said.

Spear said he doesn't understand why the Broncos won't come to Boise in men's basketball. In football, Boise State won the last 12 meetings with Idaho, and most of them weren't close.

Idaho's recent losing ways in football have been well-documented - and the Vandals are coming off back-to-back one-win seasons.

"One of the things I want people to know is, we are a successful athletic program," Spear said. "We won the WAC Commissioners Cup last year. We were in the top two two consecutive years before that. We just won the national championship in management efficiency - out of 349 Division I institutions, we were No. 1, and that was based on resources expended and championships won. And those are neat things.

"But we all know - football drives the perception of your athletic program, and that's why we're so committed to making that better," he added. "If I would tell you that back in 2011-12, the University of Idaho had a better overall athleic program than the University of Nevada, you would probably look at me and say you're crazy. But we did. We finished second in the WAC Commissioners Cup behind Fresno State that year. The next year second again behind Texas-San Antonio, and last year we won it.

"So we have overall quality," Spear said. "But, we need to get football better."

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@CdAPressSports.