After Saturday’s Apple Cup loss against Washington, the Washington State Cougars face an uncertain future—and a wave of transfers—in the wake of the Pac-12’s collapse.
The Washington State Cougars are one of college football’s most remote major teams. They play in Pullman, Wash.—population a hair under 33,000—in a rural region of eastern Washington known as the Palouse.
“We don’t have any ‘whales’ who have come forward to support us,” said Tim Brandle, treasurer for Cougar Collective, the university’s donor organization that helps connect athletes with endorsement deals. “But we do have passionate Cougar fans all over the world.”
The university’s rural setting holds it back. “We don’t have a Lamborghini dealership in Pullman,” said Robbie Tobeck, an offensive lineman for Washington State in the early 90s and co-founder of Cougar Collective. But, Tobeck added, starting quarterback Cam Ward did get hooked up with a GMC truck from a local car dealership.
“We have done OK with less,” Tobeck said. “But you can’t do with less over and over and over again and expect to have a winning program.”
Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
