Not True Lopes.

Spokane does not have that sizable a WSU alumni base. Their facebook page has a whopping 67 in Northeast Washington (Spokane), and 205 in Palouse. There are a 1000 in King (Seattle). Another 500 in the eastern part of the state, plus 214 in Oregon (obviously mostly Portland). It's not scientific, but it gives the picture that most of the in-State alumni live overwhelmingly along the western part of the State. In addition, there are 969 in the NorCal chapter and another 2015 in Sac chapter, with 533 in San Diego, 528 in SoCal (LA Basin). Arizona has 203 while Idaho only 127.

It's very clear what is going. WSU is made up of Sea-Tac and Californians. If you get a degree from an R1 school like WSU with a good reputation with employers (and that is true) then you do not stay in college town Pullman-Moscow, or even small backwoods mini-city of Spokane. This is the exact same problem Idaho has, except it is a school with only 40% of the students and maybe 1/3rd the budget. There is no way they can draw crap there, and nobody who went to their school (or not many) live within driving range. If anything Wazzu is even less of a regional school than Idaho, as the kids come from statewide, mostly the Sea-Tac area, plus some of the huge overflow of kids from California who want a residential school but couldn't get in or couldn't get the major they wanted at UC.The kids support the sports great, and alumni donations are good. But the gate is a joke. People will only come out every other year (or so) for the Apple Cup.