Having the smallest athletic budget in the Pac-12 has not confined Washington State to the bottom of the standings, but WSU’s ability to pursue further facility upgrades is limited. An article in USA Today examined the financial state of WSU athletics and how an increase in spending preceded the football team’s recent success.
While the budget of the athletic department is one of the smallest among Power 5 schools, the situation used to be much more dire. With the uptick in wins in 2015 and 2016 donations to the annual scholarship have doubled since 2011, and a record 14,400 season tickets were sold for 2017.