THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, March 3, 2016

The crazy thing is, by the time they get drop-kicked out of the Sun Belt Conference at the end of the 2017 season, the Idaho Vandals might be pretty good at this FBS football stuff.

Maybe, maybe not.

Four wins last year — the most in five years — and that’s with two other games where they blew big leads in the fourth quarter and lost.

This year, with most of their offensive starters back, the Vandals EXPECT to be in a bowl game, which would mean winning at least six games.

How many times in the last two decades have you heard that kind of optimism coming out of Moscow?

In a curious bit of timing, the Vandals recently released a football video, as spring practice nears and the optimism for the upcoming season building, entitled “You will never see us coming.”

We’ve been teased before. The 2009 ride which resulted in a thrilling Humanitarian Bowl victory, followed by a near-miss the following year.

Of course that was followed by four years of mostly brutal football.

And now that they’re showing signs of life again, they’re looking for a new beginning.

The Sun Belt doesn’t want Idaho anymore, not because the Vandals are dragging the conference’s power ranking down in football (Idaho beat three Sun Belt teams last year), but because they don’t need them anymore.

SO NOW the sentiment is to go back to the Big Sky Conference and hit the “resume” button after all the great years in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The pleas from fans to “keep up with Boise State” have mostly subsided, drowned out by the calls to “go back to the good ol’ days of the Big Sky.”

Fine, whatever.

For as competitive as the Vandals are starting to become in the Sun Belt, most fans don’t know their Georgia State from their Georgia Southern. Some pretty good D-I talent came into the Kibbie Dome the past couple of years, but most couldn’t identify.

Now, get Montana confused with Montana State in these parts, and watch out.

Despite all that, the Vandals draw fairly well for Sun Belt games, a sign folks don’t mind seeing that level of football, even if they don’t know their names.

SO IF Idaho winds up back in the Big Sky, where the Vandals resided from 1965-95, it’s up to Vandal fans who want that to happen to put their fannies where their mouths are.

Fill the Kibbie Dome — and not just for games vs. Montana and Eastern Washington, but also for Montana State, Weber State, Sac State and whoever else is in the league by then.

Do the same on the road. Take over a chunk of Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, and Roos Field in Cheney.

Remember, the Vandals will go from 85 football scholarships in FBS to 63 in FCS, so the talent level could drop a little.

Then again, pundits can (accurately) say the Vandals weren’t all that competitive most years with 85.

So maybe it is time for Idaho to admit they fought the good fight for 20 years, but it’s just not going to happen.

Who knows, maybe you can go home again.

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.