THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, November 19, 2015

The crazy thing about the fall high school sports season is, it could end at any time.

During Coeur d’Alene’s run of four straight trips to the state title game in football, the season stretched as long as it possibly could, into the third weekend of November — just before Thanksgiving.

This year, it ended two weeks earlier than that, when Coeur d’Alene (5A) and St. Maries (2A) were bumped off in the quarterfinals of their respective state playoffs.

When teams are successful, you kind of get used to them making long runs in the playoffs, and when they don’t, you’re caught a little bit by surprise.

Coeur d’Alene and Timberlake (3A), two such programs, both were knocked out of the playoffs with home losses. Madison of Rexburg was a solid 5A team, but it was still a game the Vikings could have won. And Timberlake lost at home to Parma in the first round — or play-in round, depending on your perspective — of the 16-team tournament.

BUT PERHAPS a better way to look at it is, marvel at the sustained excellence of the programs.

Coeur d’Alene’s trip to the playoffs this year was its seventh straight — longer than anyone else in the area, again; depending on your definition of first-round games in 16-team tournaments.

Of those seven trips, the Viks made the four straight state title trips, winning three of them. There was also a trip to the state semifinals in 2009, and the last two seasons, Coeur d’Alene was ousted in the quarterfinals.

In 2001 and ’02, Timberlake played in back-to-back play-in/first round games — back when those were the exception, rather that the rule, in the state playoffs. The Tigers lost both of those games, so their first true “playoff” appearance was in 2003, and Timberlake, whether there was a play-in/first round game in a particular season, made it to at least the quarterfinals every year until this year.

In that stretch, the Tigers made it as far as the semis five times before losing.

I’M NOT sure what to make of these play-in/first round games. I guess it depends on the records of the teams — if one of the teams has a losing record, it’s harder to consider it a playoff game

In the 5A playoffs, which expanded from eight to 12 teams in 2014, only one of the four first-round matchups featured a team with a losing record — Meridian (4-5).

That was the reason coaches pushed to expand the 5A and 4A playoffs — too many good teams were being left home.

Had the 5A playoffs remained at eight teams, one 6-3 squad and two 7-2 teams would have been left home this year.

In 4A, four of the eight teams in the first round had losing records — however, 4A teams are hard to gauge because many of them play up against 5A schools.

In 3A, there were a couple 2-6 teams in the play-in/first round; in 2A, there were two 2-6 teams and a 1-7 squad.

In 1A Division I, there was a 3-4 team, a 3-5 team and an 0-6 squad — and the winless squad forfeited its “playoff” game. In 1A Division II, there were teams with records of 0-7, 2-6 and 1-5 — and the 1-5 team forfeited its first game as well.

Then again, how would you tell a team like Lakeland they weren’t really in the playoffs? Despite heading into the final week of the regular season winless, the Hawks won the game they had to win to make the playoffs, despite their 1-8 record.

BOISE STATE avoided a huge PR fiasco when the school found a way to host the state 5A football championship game this weekend at Albertsons Stadium (formerly Bronco Stadium).

The issue, according to the Idaho Statesman newspaper of Boise, getting the stadium ready quickly after Boise State played host to Air Force on Friday night, a game scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Also, parking was needed for comedian Kevin Hart’s show, slated for 7 p.m. at nearby Taco Bell Arena, which shares a parking lot with Albertsons Stadium.

The compromise: Mountain View and Rocky Mountain, both of Meridian, will play Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Albertsons Stadium for the state 5A title. It’s the first time two Boise-area teams have played for the state 5A title since 2009.

Boise city high schools played their home football games at Bronco Stadium for years, and BSU was the site of the state track meet.

But much has changed at BSU since then. The Broncos have expanded their stadium, which eliminated the track. A track/football facility was built nearby at Dona Larsen Park a few years ago, and high school football games and state track meets were moved there.

But Dona Larsen only seats around 5,000 fans, and Mountain View athletic director Luke Wolf told the Statesman the two schools expect a crowd of 10-15,000 for the title game.

Title games were routinely played at Boise State until the expansion, but in recent years, many of them have been played elsewhere in the Treasure Valley.

So kudos to BSU. It wouldn’t have looked good for the Broncos to tell the best high school football players in the area, “We want you to come play for BSU,” but well, while they’re still in high school, “take your state title game somewhere else.”

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.