The excitement starts building a hundred hours before kickoff.
Seven Saturdays every fall, RVs from every point on the compass roll onto the Palouse in Eastern Washington bound for Pullman, home of Washington State University. Alumni roam campus, deciding which of their stories they can share with their children. Bars along Colorado Street call in extra staff. The Cougar Marching Band tunes up as Butch T. Cougar gets loose.
More than 2,000 miles to the east, State College, Pennsylvania, fills to bursting as alumni of Penn State return up U.S. 322 to Happy Valley, swarming the restaurants, college bookstores and streets on campus.