Right. That's how I envisioned this having been surveyed. I just figured Washington, a state school in a very large market with a somewhat successful history and a member of the unquestioned number one conference on the west coast would trump the small, private school located on the Idaho border. But I suppose recent history has favored Gonzaga and the bandwagoners have taken notice.
I live in Washington. This is
not the kind of sportscentric culture that permeates much of the rest of the country. This is also the place that lost their NBA team. This is the place where there is essentially zero pressure to add the Pac12 network to satellite and cable lineups.
To the extent that people follow sports at all, the bandwagon tendency is always present--in football (for example), Eastern Washington seems on par with UW--and WSU actually seems to have a more loyal following than UW. The Ducks spill over a lot. (Seahawks/NFL is king--seriously, hardly anyone pays attention to college football, much less other collegiate sports.)
Basically, there just isn't a strong sports culture like there is in other parts of the country. For that matter, it's a noticeably weaker sports culture than even Oregon.
Gonzaga has an outsize influence because so many of the professional class in Washington passed through there and that tends to trickle down, and of course, the history.
It's really hard to explain how ambivalent most of the west coast seems to be about sports. A place like Nebraska can fill a stadium with a population base of what? a couple million? A California school, drawing on a population base 10-12 times larger
might fill a stadium
if they're winning.
The Washington Rabid Sports Fan Association could hold their convention in a telephone booth.