We'd like to see more matchups like these

No matter how the games turn out, it’s a good thing that Washington State and Eastern Washington play each other in football every few years.

Ditto Boise State playing anybody out of conference who is really good.

Despite being an FCS school, Eastern has obviously shown in recent years it can play with the bigger boys in the Pac-12. The Eags have played Washington and Oregon tough, and have beaten Oregon State and WSU.

Washington State playing Wyoming attracted mild interest mostly because it was the opener, as well as the “challenge” for the Cougs playing at 7,000 feet (given the talent level difference between the two schools, WSU would have won had they played at 70,000 feet).

Sure, every team needs those kind of games, but fans need these kinds of games.

The Eags getting plastered at Texas Tech, as was the case in the 2017 season opener, might be good for the school’s athletic budget, but it hardly moves the needle compared to the interest generated by this year’s EWU-WSU matchup — especially after the Eags came into Pullman two years ago and took home a victory.

Certainly the state legislature has more important things to do than step in and mandate such things, but it’s good for college football in the area for EWU to play some of the bigger schools in the Northwest on a regular basis.

So far, so (sorta) good. Eastern is scheduled (according to fbschedules.com) to play at the Huskies next season, at Florida in 2020 and at Oregon in 2022.

SAME WITH Boise State, which yawned its way past Troy and UConn before challenging Oklahoma State at Stillwater on Saturday.

The fact the Broncos got it handed to them a little bit by the Cowboys shouldn’t be an indicator that BSU isn’t ready for these kinds of games — just like a BSU win shouldn’t have had Bronco lovers pulling out their Fiesta Bowl T-shirts from the victory over Oklahoma more than a decade ago.

Boise State needs to try to play one of these kinds of games every season — only Mountain West diehards can get too excited over their conference slate.

Looks like the Broncos are trying.

According to fbschedules.com, BSU is slated to play Florida State in 2019 and 2020 (well, it seemed like a big matchup at the time ... the Seminoles are off to a 1-2 start this season), Oklahoma State in 2021, Michigan State in 2022 and ’23, Oregon in 2024 and ’26, and Washington State is back on the schedule in 2026 and ’27.

YOU COULD extend this argument (wish might be a better word) to, say, Gonzaga basketball.

Ideally, the Zags would play at least one of the other area schools each season. But it’s happening less and less.

Gonzaga is in the midst of a home-and-home series with Washington. But the Zags ended their long-running series with Washington State a few years back, and they no longer play Idaho or Eastern Washington either.

(Gee, it was just less than three decades ago when Gonzaga, WSU, Idaho and EWU met for a couple of seasons in a four-team tournament at the old Spokane Coliseum).

Granted, the current GU has little to gain from thumping one of the other area schools. But, if they’re going to bring teams like North Alabama and Cal State Bakersfield into the McCarthey Athletic Center for a beatdown, wouldn’t it be a little more intriguing to local fans to sub in a local team in their place?

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.