Navigating the Unknown: The Future of Washington State Athletics

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the collapse of the Pac-12 could have a potentially significant economic impact on not just Oregon State University, but the entire city of Corvallis. After all, the city relies heavily on tax revenue from hotels to help pay for the city’s tourism department, and swapping road trips from UCLA, Utah and Arizona State with Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Jose State could mean lower tax receipts, to say nothing of the downstream impact on restaurants, bars, and other small businesses.

When I was visiting the Pacific Northwest last week, I made sure to swing up to spend time in Pullman. Like Oregon State, Washington State is also facing a potential conference realignment existential crisis. Pullman is even smaller and more rural than Corvallis, and if city officials there were concerned about potential economic impacts, I figured there would be a similar story in Pullman.

I don’t want to say that the breakup of the Pac-12 is good for Pullman or Washington State. It clearly isn’t. But maybe these two cities are in more different situations than I originally thought.

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