THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The aftermath of all that excitement in Pullman

The buzz surrounding Wisconsin, the 19th-ranked team in the country, playing at Washington State on Saturday was notable.

First Big Ten team in 25 years to visit Pullman, we were reminded … and reminded … and reminded.

The same Big Ten which will include USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington next year — but not the Beloveds on the Palouse.

Wisconsin, mind you.

Imagine if Michigan … or Ohio State … or Penn State … ever visited Pullman.

(I don’t remember this kind of buzz in 1998, when Illinois flew out West from Champaign-Urbana to play the Cougs. But anyway … )

ALSO NOTABLE is the tough talk from WSU administration in recent days/weeks.

Wondering where was this tough talk when the Pac-12 was in the process of disintegrating — could the Coug brass have helped prevent this?

However, kudos to WSU and Oregon State for trying not to allow the other schools a say in the conference they have decided to bail on.

Let’s hope justice — not just speeding tickets — is served in Colfax.

LOOK, THE game-day experience in Pullman is second to none in the Inland Northwest.

There are diehard Cougar fans — just like there are diehard Vandal fans, and diehard Eastern fans. The number of RVs that roll into town, and all the “Go Cougs!” you hear throughout the region, is impressive and heartwarming.

It’s also 35,000 — for a “big” game.

It’s not 54,000.

It’s not 70,138.

It’s not 102,780.

The reality is, the sport tells you where you belong, and the game tells you if you can play.

It’s nice to have your own brand of cheese, and flags waving weekly on ESPN GameDay.

It was nice that your beloved former quarterback had a cool mustache, but that doesn’t help him start in the NFL.

But the game tells you.

If one of the big conferences really wanted WSU, they would have scooped them up yesterday.

WHO KNOWS? Perhaps I’m just temporarily caught up in the warmth and fuzziness that is Cougar Athletics — drinking the Kool-Aid, as it were.

There are worse things that can happen, I suppose. But somewhere there has to be a balance between the emotion and the reality.

But that said, WSU (and OSU) deserves better.

The Cougs will argue that they are a bigger brand than their numbers. Even though they play in a smallish stadium by big-time football standards, they claim to be a hit, ratings-wise, on TV. They play a brand of football that is entertaining to fans outside the Palouse.

At least in the last decade, the Cougs have been one of the better football teams in the Pac-12.

And this is a discussion about football — and money.

The sad thing is, it didn’t have to come to this.

The mass exodus from the Pac-12 doesn’t officially happen until next year. But already, before it even happens, the national talking heads are already mentioning the very real possibility of a football super-conference a few years down the road, where regions don’t matter.

The other sports? Well, teams from those schools go back to playing in the regional conferences they were in for years.

Couldn’t they have just decided to do that now with football, and leave the other sports alone?

Save, say, the Oregon women’s basketball team from a weekend trip to Rutgers and Penn State in the dead of winter, just so the football team can visit Happy Valley every other year.

True, that wouldn’t help the beloved Cougs in football — at least now.

But, after a second straight win over a top-tier Big Ten team on the gridiron, maybe it would eventually.

And Kool-Aid was pretty tasty as a kid, if I recall.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.