CLEMSON, S.C. — ESPN College GameDay travels the country, moving from one marquee game to another from one Saturday to the next, showcasing teams, players, coaches and crowds from August through December.

The one constant, seen flapping in the breeze on every GameDay set, is a Washington State flag – regardless of whether or not GameDay is in Pullman, Wash., home of the Cougars, or in Clemson to see the Tigers play Georgia. It’s a GameDay staple: One or two Washington State fans, nearly always alumni, take on the task of waving the WSU logo in the background of each broadcast.

The flags – two of them, one crimson, one gray – have appeared at 133 consecutive GameDay sets, appearing amid waves of home-team-centered flags and signs. The honor Saturday fell to Tyler Witthuhn and his father, Steve, who volunteered through the university’s alumni association.

“We use social media, an alumni network, and basically you say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in the area of where GameDay is,’ ” Tyler Witthuhn said. “So we ship the flag to whoever that person is.”

What started as a bit of a gag Oct. 18, 2003 has turned into a “dead-on tradition,” Witthuhn said. In 2003, a few loyal WSU fans thought bringing a flag to a GameDay broadcast would persuade the show to take a trip to Pullman. At the time, the Cougars were battling for a Rose Bowl berth.

“We were a really good team at that point and we wanted College GameDay to come to Pullman,” Witthuhn said. “The fan base started doing it.”

Here’s how it works: Two alumni coordinators, Tom Pounds and Cameron McCoy, call or e-mail those individuals near the site of the upcoming GameDay broadcast, once ESPN announces the location. After a volunteer steps forward, a flag kit is shipped to the individual from the site of the previous GameDay appearance. It’s not cheap: Witthuhn and D. Scott Heath, another WSU fan among Saturday’s crowd, said the cost for shipping the two flags from GameDay set to GameDay set costs $1,500 a year.

But it wouldn’t be GameDay without a Washington State flag fluttering in the distance. Locating the flag – it’s usually in a rear corner, as it was Saturday – has become a Where’s Waldo-like exercise for GameDay viewers.

“We know people, not even from our school, that will actually tune in to GameDay just to see if the flag is up,” Witthuhn said. On Saturday, Witthuhn, his father and Heath answered questions and posed for pictures with Clemson fans, encountering a degree of friendliness rarely afforded visiting fans at any GameDay setup.

This isn’t exclusive to Clemson: Flag-carriers like Witthuhn are always met with open arms among the GameDay crowd.

“You walk out and it’s, ‘Hey, it’s the Wazzu flag!’ You know? And that’s known,” Heath said.

Said Witthuhn, “When we arrive, the whole crowd, they saw us and, ‘Oh my gosh, you made it!’ There were just a ton of people there early. The whole South loves Washington State for some reason.”