Apple Cup Goes From Hallowed Ground to Uncertain Footing

With just three games under contract, people wonder if this rivalry game will survive.

Huskies Geirean Hatchett, left, and Drew Azzopardi, center, hold up the Apple Cup trophy in 2025. | Dave Sizer photo

The Apple Cup has slid all the way from the last game on the schedule just three years ago to the season opener for the first time in history for the University of Washington and Washington State football teams this weekend.

The question everyone wants to know is this: will this storied rivalry game survive a constantly evolving college landscape or keep moving until it's off schedule entirely when the contract runs out?

Just three games are for certain in Sunday's 118th series match-up at Husky Stadium, followed by a return to Pullman next year and another Montlake match-up in 2028.

Taariq "Buddah" Al-Uqdah uniquely has played in the Apple Cup for each school, three games in all, and has offered the most definitive argument for keeping it.

"From a person who's played on both sides, it's a special game. although both sides might not see it that way," the linebacker said. "I still think it's a very serious game. We still need rivalries like that. I feel it should continue."

Ah, but he sounds like a lone wolf these days -- or is that a combination Husky and Cougar? -- howling in the Northwest wind.

From left, the UW's Paki Finau, Geirean and Landen Hatchett, John Mills, Drew Azzopardi, Soane Faasolo, Quentin Moore and Kade Eldridge celebrate an Apple Cup win. | Dave Sizer photo

The stock answer is nobody knows whether people will attempt to save the game or let it disappear along the lines of, say, the LA Bowl, which was discontinued shortly after the Huskies took a 38-10 victory over Boise State in December, ending a five-year run.

The problem is the UW now belongs to the Big Ten Conference, having left WSU to fend for itself in the reimagined Pac-12.

Conversely, there is a wide disparity in revenues being funneled into each of these long-standing football programs, which could lead to lopsided games on a regular basis and drain all the interest out of the match-up, as John Wilner of the Bay Area Group adroitly pointed out.

Then there's the matter of the UW alternating four or five Big Ten games on its home schedule, which could be the biggest issue.

In this day of maximizing revenue streams to help pay the players, the Huskies stand to have years in which they would miss out on seven homes and the resulting gate should they play one less Big Ten game at home and have to go to Pullman all at once.

Bud Withers has written the only book about the Apple Cup. | Dan Raley

That situation could be rectified, of course, if WSU gave up its home-field advantage at times and played consecutive years at the UW or at least in Seattle at Lumen Field as it did in 2024, which might not be a ready option in the Palouse.

"Scheduling is going to be out of our hands here soon," UW coach Jedd Fisch said this week. "So at some point, we're probably going to shift and there's going to be decisions that are made and will it continue, and how much longer will it continue for?"

Local sports writer Bud Withers in the past year published the only book written about the Apple Cup, which seemed to address its uncertain future with its hopeful title "Too Good to be Through."

There still appears to be plenty of interest in this cross-state showdown, with Fisch mentioning that this weekend's game is either a sellout or close to it.

While noting the potential complications that could arise, the third-year Husky coach seems all in favor of playing the Apple Cup as long as possible.

"Hopefully we will continue the Washington-Washington State rivalry for years to come because it's pretty cool to have a rivalry sandwich, with Washington State on the front end and Oregon on the back end, and see what kind of excitement we can generate," Fisch said.

Revenues or excitement, it probably will come down to that.