THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The 6-Pac, and its eventual impact on Idaho

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted something so bad?

You kept asking your parents and they kept telling you, be patient. 

You waited years and years for it, and when you finally got it, it wasn’t anything like you imagined it would be? 

Boise State has dreamed of an invite to the Pac-12 for decades. The school was hoping to join the league headlined by USC and UCLA. But when the invite finally came, BSU joined a league kept afloat by Washington State and Oregon State. 

But I don’t think Boise State and the other three schools in their current conference even care about that. 

It’s still better than what they had. 

I’M STILL not sure what to make of this new 6-Pac that emerged the other day, with Boise, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State agreeing to join WSU and OSU effective the fall of 2026.  

It’s far from the same Pac-8/10/12 we all grew up with, but ... stuff changes, and we have to get used to it. We don’t have to like it, but we’ll watch with curiosity to see how the Departed 10 teams do in their new, richer leagues. 

Anyway, the party line out of the 6-Pac is, once at least two more teams are added, the conference teams will be better positioned to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, which expanded from four teams effective this year. And the Pac-12, with its “war chest” from all the money left behind when the other 10 teams left, can cover much of the costs of the four teams leaving the Mountain West. 

And, unless WSU and/or OSU was going to wind up in the Big 12, all six will make more TV money together than they ever would apart. 

The big question is, who will the other teams be? The Pac needs at least eight teams; some say nine would be better, so they could have an eight-game conference schedule. 

Who those possible teams could be (even Gonzaga has been mentioned), depends on what “trusted” internet source you click on. 

What do Cougar fans think of this move? 

And another big question is ... 

WHAT ABOUT Idaho? 

The Mountain West, which just lost four of its best schools, is down to eight schools. Who does that league go after to restock the shelves? 

Just when the Vandals got good again at the FCS level, and fans were getting used to the landscape there, there’s talk that the Mountain West may want to try to pry away some of the top FCS teams in recent years. 

Like North Dakota State. South Dakota State. Montana and Montana State — all teams who have played for the FCS championship in recent years. 

Idaho, after dropping back down to the Big Sky in 2018, is hoping to enter that club — and soon. 

How is the 6-Pac trickle-down going to affect those schools? 

And then an Associated Press story moved Friday saying Sacramento State was looking into moving up. A very good team in the Big Sky, with perhaps the resources to give it a try, an FCS playoff team, but not a conference champion. So we’ll see. 

Remember, Idaho tried that in 1996. It seemed like a good idea at the time — but so do a lot of things. Boise State made the move that year as well, and it worked out well for the Broncos. 

Sure, the three seasons Idaho made it to a bowl game (and won) were memorable. 

But as for the other 19 seasons ... 

Will what happened to Idaho when the Vandals moved up to FBS serve as a cautionary tale for the Dakota and Montana schools? 

Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it’s different now. Maybe there’s more TV money in moving up now than there was three decades ago. Payouts are generally bigger, when a smaller FBS team plays a bigger FBS team, than when an FCS school plays an FBS school. 

Costs are more, too. 

What to Vandal fans think of this? 

In any event, if any of those other FCS schools are indeed interested in moving up, you’re probably not going to hear about it publicly until it happens. 

Remember, Wednesday’s news about the new 6-Pac pretty much came out of the blue. 

Or The Blue, as they call it south of here. 

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.