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Inside The Huskies

Huskies, Cougars Will Open Coming Season On Sunday

Playing on the sabbath will be a first for the Apple Cup.
Dan Raley|
Husky edge rusher Isaiah Ward calls out an offensive formation in the Apple Cup.
Husky edge rusher Isaiah Ward calls out an offensive formation in the Apple Cup. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Some who have played in the Apple Cup consider it something akin to a religious experience.

Well, the longstanding rivalry game between the University of Washington and Washington State football teams moved a little closer in that direction with Wednesday's announcement that the teams will now play on Sunday, September 6.

With a 1 p.m. PT kickoff, that satisfies the need for an entertaining college game to be shown nationwide on that day on NBC TV in the season opener for each of these teams, in advance of the NFL season.

This is believed to be the first Apple Cup played on Sunday in a series the Huskies currently lead 77-34-6.

The Apple Cup was one of three games, all non-conference outings to begin the season, in which the start times were revealed.

A week later, the Huskies will host Utah State on Saturday, September 12, with opening kickoff coming at 12:30 p.m. and the game being shown on the Big Ten Network.

For the third game of the season, the UW will entertain Eastern Washington on Saturday, September 19, with kickoff at 4:15 p.m. and this match-up also televised on the Big Ten Network.

Kickoffs and TV coverage have now been revealed for five of the 12 games on the UW regular-season schedule, counting two Friday games.

The Huskies will host Iowa on Friday, October 9, with a 6 p.m. kickoff in Montlake, and travel to Purdue for a Friday, October 16, game with a 5 p.m. PT kickoff.

Still to be determined are kickoffs for home games against Minnesota on September 26, Penn State on Nov. 7 and Indiana on Nov. 21, and road games at USC on October 9, Nebraska on October 31, Michigan State on November 14 and Oregon on November 28.

Starting times for those seven games typically are revealed by the networks involved 12 days before they're played.

So what this Apple Cup will come down to is each team gets an extra day to prepare for it.

Previously, the Huskies played in two Rose Bowls that were moved to January 2 in 1961 and 1978 to avoid playing on Sunday.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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