THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, July 27, 2016

It appears to be the end of an era, for now at least.

Then again, it was pretty much expected once the decision was made by North Idaho College to make the move to the Northwest Athletic Conference from the NJCAA’s Scenic West Athletic Conference.

WITH THE recent release of the men’s and women’s basketball schedules for 2016-17, one game missing is the in-state rivalry game between NIC and the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.

While both teams wanted the game to happen, it didn’t quite work out for this year.

In volleyball, NIC will travel to the Starr Corporation Invitational in Twin Falls in September, but will not play the Golden Eagles, who won their 11th national title in 2015. NIC’s volleyball team will also play at the Salt Lake Community College-hosted Crystal Inn-vitational on Sept. 2-3.

“We’re still trying to get CSI in for a game this season,” NIC athletic director Al Williams said. “Originally, they were going to play in the Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational (Dec. 28-30 at NIC), but South Plains (Texas) backed out because of a schedule conflict and they were a draw for some invited teams.”

Because South Plains pulled out, CSI backed out of the tourney, Williams said.

In recent years, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have had a packed preseason scheduled with games against NWAC schools. This year, the Cardinal men will play in four tournaments, the Cardinal women two before New Year’s, with the men’s program hosting a eight-team Inn-vitational.

“We are still trying to complete the tournament field,” Williams said. “We may see some additional teams show up that you recognize.”

Williams said Wenatchee Valley, Blue Mountain and Lethbridge University in Canada are among those committed to play in the Inn-vitational, joining NIC. Williams is trying to land four more teams.

The Cardinal men will also compete in tournaments in Portland, San Jose and the annual Bigfoot/Cardinal Classic, co-hosted with the Community Colleges of Spokane.

The women’s team will open the season at a tournament in Mesa, Ariz., then compete in the Bellevue (Wash.) tournament before playing a nonconference game at home before having a month off before opening conference play on Jan. 7.

ACCORDING TO Williams, NWAC basketball teams can’t play games prior to the third Friday in November, which this year falls on Nov. 18. In the NJCAA, games could be played as early as the last Friday in October. Also, the maximum number of games for the basketball regular season is 26, compared to 30 in the NJCAA.

“All of the nonconference schedules for our indoor teams (basketball, volleyball) will be more difficult to fill now that we’re in the NWAC,” Williams said. “The NWAC schools were used to fill our schedule in the preseason, and the regional NJCAA schools start conference play sooner than we do, so they’re not available. Volleyball usually hosts tournaments to fill preseason schedules to get more games at one location. It’s much easier to get games in the preseason, but usually that requires travel. We will look into hosting a preseason tournament in the near future.”

Once both basketball teams return from the holiday break, they’ll play two to three conference games a week over a span of two months before the NWAC tournament March 9-12 in Everett, Wash. Most conference games are scheduled for Wednesdays and Saturdays, with some scheduled for Mondays. Scenic West Athletic Conference games were usually on Thursdays and Saturdays, or Fridays and Saturdays. Like the SWAC, NWAC matchups are generally women/men doubleheaders.

And who knows, with a little less travel and time in between games, there could be a lot more chance of fans getting a chance to see them play than before.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.