How Just $18.90 Could Change the Future of WSU Athletics

How Just $18.90 Could Change the Future of WSU Athletics

Donation Numbers 

The Cougar Collective currently has somewhere around 2,000 to 2,500 members donating monthly and the Cougar Athletic Fund (CAF)  currently has around 4,000 members. That means that in total there are about 6,500 donors supporting WSU Athletics. This does not account for the people donating to both. 

There are currently more than 240,000 living WSU alumni, that means that just 2.7% of living alumni are currently donating to WSU athletics. For reference there are 45,000 members of the WSU Alumni Association and more than 22,000 people in the state of Washington that pay to have a WSU license plate. The Die Hard Cougs Facebook page has 35,000 members. 

These numbers clearly show that WSU alumni are passionate, engaged and still care about their alma mater. This also tells me that there is a disconnect when it comes to supporting WSU athletics. 

While researching for this piece it was also somewhat jarring to see that in 2013 the CAF had more than 6,000 members. 

Why Donations Matter 

One of the biggest jobs for the Cougar Athletic Fund is to help fund scholarships for student athletes. To cover all student athlete scholarships it cost the athletic department $12 million. According to the CAF website about $8 million of these scholarships were covered by CAF donations. That means that the athletic department has to take $4 million out of their budget to cover these scholarships. This money could be put towards facility improvements (looking at you Martin Stadium and Beasley Coliseum) as well as revenue sharing with athletes. 

Beginning in the 2025-2026 season universities are able to revenue share up to $20.5 million with student athletes. This $20.5 million figure is shared across all sports, but at most universities football players will take home most of the revenue share money. Most Power 5 universities are setting aside around $15 million for the football team. 

WSU Athletic Director Anne McCoy said that the athletic department was setting aside $4.5 million for football revenue sharing and scholarship costs, meaning the revenue sharing number will be significantly lower than $4.5 million. 

Where Does WSU Stack Up?

One article from CougFan in 2023 found that if WSU was in the Mountain West the Cougar Collective would have ranked fifth in NIL funds. We are now competing directly and sharing a conference with a lot of these teams. It was one thing to be underfunded against schools like USC and Oregon with massive donors and seemingly unlimited money, but in the new Pac12 there is no reason for WSU to be an underdog! 

Fans donations are important because understandably a lot of fans aren't able to make it to every home game. The majority of WSU alumni live in the Seattle area and with family commitments, lack of free time and other commitments it makes it hard for fans to make it to Pullman for every home game.

An example of this is, at the time of writing it has been reported that WSU football has sold around 10,000 season tickets. Compare that to our new Pac12 foe Boise State who recently announced that they have already sold 18,000 season tickets. Think about how much more revenue Boise State is generating just from season ticket sales! 

If you can't make it to Pullman as often as you would like, I would strongly encourage you to consider joining the Cougar Athletic Fund or Cougar Collective as a way to stay engaged with WSU athletics!

Momentum 

On January 16th 2025 WSU alumni Glenn Osterhout and Gary Schneidmiller announced that they would donate $250,000 to the CAF once the CAF received 1,000 new donations. 

Four and a half months later on June 4th 2025, Osterhout announced that the CAF had 1,000 new donations and they were writing the $250,000 check! 

This is a great accomplishment and will be very helpful for the athletic department, but there is still a lot more room to continue to grow! 

The Impact of $18.90 

WSU doesn’t have a singular major donor for athletics (think Phil Knight at University of

Oregon) but we do have many amazing fans! The Cougar Collective has a philosophy of mighty

by the many. This means that since WSU doesn't have one major donor, we need a lot more “smaller” donors. For example, if  30,000 alumni joined the 1890 club with the Cougar Collective and donated $18.90 per month, that would be more than $6.8 million per year! 

That additional $6.8 million per year would instantly make the Cougs yearly favorites to win the Pac12 and compete for College Football Playoff berths. It would also significantly cut down on the advantages that other Power 5 rosters have over WSU. 

Let’s Change WSU Athletics 

If you have made it this far I hope that I have been able to convince you of the need for fans to step up and donate to WSU athletics. Whether that is with the CAF or the Cougar Collective both make a huge impact!

If you would like to, I encourage you to please share this with your WSU friends and family! Lets elevate WSU athletics and go win some Pac12 championships!!

GO COUGS!