THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016

With the Idaho Vandals assured of playing in a bowl game this year, talk will soon turn to who the Vandals’ opponent will be, and in what bowl.

Wouldn’t it be funny if Idaho’s opponent was ... Boise State?

And in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, in Boise?

That would have seemed unheard of a week or so ago, when Boise State still held out hopes of playing in a New Year’s Six bowl — the Cotton Bowl.

If not in Boise, another option for the state rivals to meet would be the Arizona Bowl — which is currently a Mountain West-Conference USA matchup, unless C-USA doesn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams, then a Sun Belt team can sub in.

BUT WHY should fans from the state’s two FBS universities pack up and travel all the way to Arizona to do something they could do in Boise?

After the Las Vegas Bowl, which pits the Mountain West vs. the Pac-12, the Mountain West doesn’t have a true pecking order for its other bowls. Those matchups are often determined by geography, as well as the best possible matchup.

The Mountain West also has ties to the New Mexico, Hawaii and Poinsettia (San Diego) bowls, and perhaps the Cactus Bowl (Phoenix).

The Sun Belt bowl tie-ins are to the New Orleans, Dollar General (Mobile, Ala.), Camellia (Montgomery, Ala.), Cure (Orlando, Fla.) and Arizona bowls. There is no pecking order; teams are mostly sent where it makes geographic sense.

For Idaho, that would be most likely be the Arizona Bowl, in Tucson.

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was formerly the Humanitarian/Roady’s/Crucial.com/MPC Computers/uDrove/J.B.’s Bowl (OK, J.B.’s has never been a sponsor. But I can’t think of a better place for the linemen’s all-you-can-eat contest than watching the boys put away all that real thick bacon during the morning buffet).

Anyway, the Whateveryoucallit Boise Bowl has been a Mountain West-Mid-American Conference matchup for years. But maybe the MAC teams are tired of coming all the way out to Boise and playing in front of a sparse crowd (if Boise State isn’t in the game). Plus, they could stay back in the Midwest and be cold.

OF COURSE, a little perspective is needed here.

Boise State is 10-2, and the natives are a little restless. They might be OK if one of the Broncos’ losses was a well-played game against a big-name team. But both of Boise State’s losses came in the Mountain West Conference — at Wyoming and at Air Force.

If Idaho is 10-2, perhaps the school is re-thinking its decision to drop down to the FCS level in 2018. As it is, coach Paul Petrino was receiving his share of attaboys after last season, when the Vandals won four games and probably should have won two others.

A lot of things would have to fall into place for a Boise State-Idaho matchup in a bowl, not the least of which is Boise State agreeing to play a fourth-place team from the Sun Belt in a bowl game, when the Broncos’ record and stature would suggest they are matched up with a higher-rated foe.

But imagine the storylines. Boise State and Idaho haven’t met since 2010, the last year both teams were in the Western Athletic Conference. Idaho has wanted to continue the rivalry, but only if the schools agreed to a home-and-home series. But Boise State, which dominated the series over the past decade, said Idaho was welcome to come to Boise and play on the blue turf, but no way were the Broncos trudging back up to Moscow unless they had to.

And now, no longer in the same league — and in a couple of years, no longer in the same division — they don’t have to.

But, though it’s a longshot, fate — and a rare winning season for the Vandals — might bring Idaho and Boise State together again on the football field.

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.