PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — The athletics department at Washington State University has the smallest budget and market in the Pacific-10 Conference, but the Cougars seem to be weathering this battered economy better than some of their richer rivals.

Reductions in ticket sales and investment income, coupled with rising costs, have some Pac-10 schools dropping sports or slashing their budgets. Washington State, by contrast, plans some modest belt-tightening.

WSU officials say the Cougars simply live within their means, spending frugally on coaches, travel and facilities. They receive no state tax money for athletics, and have not run up a deficit in years.

"There are no gold-plated limos," Anne McCoy, vice president for finances of the WSU athletics department, said during a lengthy interview with The Associated Press. "We feel we can be efficient, yet excellent."

The Cougars are not immune to financial woes. A short-lived effort to move the Apple Cup football game permanently to Seattle was motivated by making more money from the rivalry game. Washington State is also trying to raise $40 million to build 2,200 luxury seats at Martin Stadium to help pay the rising costs of scholarships and other expenses.

The athletic department reported annual revenues of nearly $40 million to the federal government in 2008 and has 140 employees.

But the Cougars are definitely on the wrong side of the tracks in the glamorous Pac-10, which has teams located in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Seattle metropolitan areas, among others. Pullman has just 25,000 people and minimal airline service. Opposing teams frequently complain about getting to the campus, and most alumni live hundreds of miles away, in Western Washington.

While archrival Washington has fans who arrive at home football games in yachts, Washington State fans often show up in pickup trucks, and the RV is a popular lodging option in a town with few hotels.

Recruiting blue-chip players from major population centers can be a challenge.

Yet somehow, the Cougars make it work on and off the field.

Despite some recent lean years, the Cougars are 56-52 in football since 2000, going to three bowl games. That places them seventh among league teams, better than Arizona, Stanford and Washington, and nearly even with UCLA and Arizona State. In men's basketball they're 136-161 since the 1999-2000 season, ninth best in the league. But they have had three straight winning seasons and gone to the postseason all three times.

Washington State does it on total sports revenues of $39.6 million, according to statistics for the 2007-08 season, the latest available, provided by the school to the U.S. Office of Postsecondary Education.

Washington State finished that year with a surplus of $3.2 million after expenses. By contrast, Washington reported revenues of $60 million, with a surplus of $3.4 million.

But Washington is among the penthouse programs in the Pac-10 that are displaying more financial distress. The Huskies recently decided to drop men's and women's swimming and are laying off employees in an effort to cut 4 percent from their budget. A big problem is that football season ticket sales have dropped from 55,000 in 2002 to 37,000 last year as the team has struggled.

"We're not in horrific shape," Athletic Director Scott Woodward said. "I don't think we're feeling it as bad as some of our counterparts."

Among other Pac-10 schools, Stanford will cut $1.8 million from its athletic department budget this year, and $3.3 million next year. UCLA's budget will take a $1.5 to $2 million hit. Oregon State is warning it may cut sports if it can't raise more money from donors. Arizona State's coaches are taking unpaid furloughs.

The other Pac-10 teams operated on revenues ranging from $76 million at Stanford and Southern Cal to $47 million at Oregon State, according to their reports to the Office of Postsecondary Education.

One way the Cougars keep costs down is in coaching salaries.

"We don't need to compete with an arms race in coaching salaries," McCoy said.

Football coach Paul Wulff was hired two years ago out of Eastern Washington at a salary of $600,000 per year. Washington just hired Steve Sarkisian from Southern Cal for $1.75 million.

When WSU basketball coach Tony Bennett bolted for Virginia after last season, getting a pay raise from $1 million to $1.7 million, the Cougars hired Ken Bone from Portland State for $650,000 instead of seeking a big-name replacement.

But frugality only goes so far, and the Cougars are trying hard to raise more money. Cougar fans are notable for their passion, McCoy said.

"But sometimes it takes more than passion and enthusiasm," McCoy said. "It needs to be about tickets and donations."

The department is seeking to double the 6,100 people who donate to sports.

Football is the biggest source of money for the athletics department, as it is at most major conference schools. The Cougars reported football revenues of $13 million in 2007-08, and expenses of $8.2 million.

Martin Stadium becomes more populous than Pullman on game days. In the 2008 season, the Cougars averaged 30,719 fans per game at the 35,000-seat stadium, ranking 74th among 119 major college programs. That put them in the same range as Indiana, Wake Forest, Duke and Northwestern. The league averaged 57,350 fans per game.

The situation is little better in men's basketball, where the Cougars' average of 8,000 per game last season ranked them in the middle of the Pac-10.

Contrary to popular belief, Washington State receives no state tax money for sports.

"We receive no state appropriated funds," McCoy said.

For fiscal 2008, McCoy said WSU's athletic revenue streams broke down as follows: 25 percent from the Pac-10 as its share of league revenues from television contracts and other sources; 19 percent from ticket sales; 19 percent from sponsors; 15 percent from donations; 7 percent in game guarantees for playing on the road; 7 percent from a fund that collects a portion of money raised by commercial activities of the university; 4 percent from WSU student activity fees; 2 percent from the NCAA; 1 percent each from summer camps and local broadcast rights.

The 7 percent from the university is often inaccurately portrayed as tax money from the general fund, McCoy said. Actually, that money comes from a fee assessed on all WSU entities that sell products or services to the public, McCoy said. The athletics department gets a share of money from that pool, but also contributes to it through ticket sales and other revenues, she said.

The one bit of direct support that Washington State and Washington both receive is tuition waivers for female student-athletes, to stay in compliance with Title IX requirements, McCoy said.

The athletics department at WSU has operated in the black since she arrived in 2001, McCoy said. Prior to that, there were deficits some years, she said.

As a result, WSU is not planning to cut any of its 17 sports, McCoy said.