THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Holidays with the tube, and the Zags

Nope, didn’t jet off to Hawaii over the Christmas break to soak up some sunshine, put off shoveling snow for a bit, and watch some high school hoops.

Didn’t head to Vegas to watch an NFL game.

Just hung out around the house — mostly — and caught whatever bowl games and other stuff were on TV.

THE NBA used to have Christmas day all to itself, with wall-to-wall games.

Unless you’re a true aficionado of the league, the five-game day usually starts out with a boring Eastern Conference game, followed by hopefully a couple of compelling matchups, and ending with a game that would probably be entertaining by itself — but by that time you’re so strung out on roundball that all the egg nog in the world couldn’t help you keep your focus.

Thankfully, the NFL stepped in with a tripleheader on Christmas day.

Usually when Christmas falls on a Sunday, the Shield decides that Sunday will be on Saturday. But this year, the NFL turned Christmas into Thanksgiving day, and drubbed the Association in the ratings.

The best game was the Slime Game on Nickelodeon, the only way to watch the Rams crush The (Formerly) Great Russell Wilson and the Broncos.

Of course, an NFL walk-through would likely out-draw the NBA on TV. Preseason games routinely are ratings winners. Folks actually wager on these practice games.

But in any event, it was good to have a viewing alternative, in case the egg nog wasn’t strong enough to do the trick.

AS LONG as you look at bowl games as programming — an alternative to, say, reruns of “Barney Miller” — they’re not bad television.

I tuned in to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise mostly so I could watch the winning coach get “drenched” with French Fries.

Ditto the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is different. It is almost a sacred event.

Or at least it will be until it gets swallowed up into the College Football Playoff full-time, at which time it becomes just another game — albeit in a pretty setting.

But even this year’s Granddaddy of Them All seemed a little weird.

Maybe because it was played on Jan. 2, not New Year’s Day, on a day that was sort-of a holiday, sort-of a working day.

Also, after watching Utah, the Pac-12 champions, lose for the second straight year to a squad that was not the best team in the Big Ten, I began to wonder …

Will a Pac-12 team ever win a national championship again?

It just seems like the teams in the College Football Playoff are on a whole ‘nother level than the ones in the Conference of Champions.

Then again, TCU is playing in the natty on Monday night …

THANKS TO a kind reader, I (and a guest) took in the Zags’ game last week against Eastern Oregon.

It was a little disappointing to see EOU, with two key conference games coming up, rest two of its top players against the Zags.

The game wouldn’t have been close anyway — the Zags’ second unit would have won easily — it was basically a chance for the Zags to run up and down the court and shake off the holiday rust in preparation for its conference opener in a few days.

Emmit Taylor III, formerly of NIC, did play for EOU.

And it was cool to see Slade Dill, the pride of Dietrich High, get some playing time for the Mountaineers.

The last time I saw Slade Dill, the slender 6-foot-6 Dill was battling against Genesis Prep at the state 1A Division II tournament.

As for the Zags, their comeback win at San Francisco the other night probably says more about the WCC then about the Zags.

The lovables should have lost that game, but USF, while a good team and playing well, wasn’t good enough to put the Zags away. The Zags made winning plays at the end, and the Dons collapsed and made hurried plays.

THEN THERE were the Cougs, who found a way to, well … you know what the phrase is — against UCLA last week at home. WSU turned an almost certain solid victory over a team that began the season as part of the national title conversation into a head-scratching loss.

Seems like there’s been too many of those games in recent years from a program supposedly “on the rise.”

Of course, two days later the Cougs handled USC.

Then went on the road and whipped No. 5 Arizona on Saturday.

Go figure.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.