THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015

The sun was shining bright in Philadelphia on Saturday morning.

Which was nice for them because, as the story goes, even Santa Claus could get booed in Philly, imagine how the locals would react to bad weather?

Meanwhile, it was cold and windy and rainy in Pullman, so many the head mucky-mucks knew what they were doing when they assigned their College GameDay crew to Philly, rather than the Palouse.

They opted for Philly, where No. 22 Temple was playing host to No. 9 Notre Dame, rather than Pullman, where Washington State was hosting Stanford, with the winner moving into the driver’s seat for the Pac-12 North title.

Cougar fans were disappointed, but perhaps the snub by ESPN was actually a sign of respect by the World Wide Leader.

LOOK AT it this way — how often is GameDay going to have the chance to go to Philadelphia because of a Temple game?

How bad have the Owls been, historically, in football?

Weren’t they so bad a few years ago that they were kicked out of the Big East in football?

It was only two years ago that Temple lost to Idaho in football. To Idaho! It was the Vandals’ only victory of the season.

What else comes to mind when you think of Temple? Bill Cosby.

Anything else? They had a pretty good men’s basketball coach in John Chaney — except for the time he lost it after a game and threatened to kill the opposing coach. That coach was John Calipari.

So maybe ESPN figured Temple could use a little positive publicity for a change.

MEANWHILE, WSU football was on a roll, riding a three-game winning streak at the time ESPN made its call.

But before that, there hadn’t been much for Cougar fans to cheer about of late, since a couple of Rose Bowl trips around the turn of the century, during the Mike Price era.

Sure, WSU made it to a bowl game a couple of years ago, but found a way to give the game away in true Coug fashion.

That was followed by 3-9 stinker of a season last year, and followed further by loss at home this year to FBS Portland State in the season opener. The questions began to be raised — was Mike Leach not going to be the savior he was brought to Pullman to be?

But winning is a pretty good cure from whatever is ailing a program, and maybe that factored into ESPN’s decision. The boys in Bristol may have figured WSU will be in a position to get another chance to welcome GameDay to town, one of these weeks, one of these years.

Maybe for the next Apple Cup in Pullman, when they play it on a Saturday?

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.