The Washington State Cougars have never won a national championship in college football, but they can say they have college football’s best logo.
That honor on Monday was bestowed upon the Cougs by Reddit’s college football subreddit, which conducted an unofficial bracket-style poll to determine which school had the best logo in all of college football. The /r/CFB community numbers more than 160,000 subscribers.
The Cougs beat out Michigan State to earn 56.3 percent of the final vote. WSU beat Virginia in the semifinal (Michigan State beat Georgia Tech) after previously besting LSU, Cal, USC and San Diego State.
WSU’s Cougar Head logo was designed by Randall Johnson, an art major at WSU who graduated in 1938. According to his grandniece, Angela Allison, Johnson originally designed the logo with the letters “WSC” in the shape of a Cougar, but changed that to “WSU” after the institution gained university status.
“Randall didn’t want to profit from his logo design, as he considered it a gift to his school. So he sold the rights to the logo to WSU for $1,” Allison wrote in an email to The Seattle Times this week.
So there you have it, Cougs. Now, to field a football team that’s as awesome as the logo!
Here’s a look at the results by conference, courtesy of Reddit user /u/bakonydraco. The bracket itself was created by Reddit user Eric Odenheimer (/u/e8odie), who also ran the poll.