> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Will Apple Cup Continue Past 2028? Like Everything Else in College Football, It’s Complicated - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/apple-cup-washington-huskies-wsu-cougars-future-past-2028/ - Published: 2026-09-01T17:05:47.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:35:30.000Z - Author: Aaron Coe - Tags: Analysis, Huskies Football, Apple Cup, Cougars Football, Jedd Fisch, Buddah Al-Uqdah, Pat Chun SEATTLE, Wash. — With its future uncertain, the Apple Cup kicks off this Sunday as the season opener for both Washington and Washington State. There’s a lot in that lede that would have sounded absurd a few years ago. Welcome to college football in 2026, a time in which traditions are maintained — as long as they come with maximum revenue streams. Back in 2022, the stream wasn’t flowing fast enough, so USC and UCLA took off for the Big Ten. Just over a year later, Colorado split for the Big 12\. A few days after the Buffaloes roamed to the Big 12, Oregon and Washington split for the Big Ten. That put the Apple Cup in a precarious position, before some state politicians and school presidents put some pressure on a five-year deal that is set to expire after the 120th meeting between the Huskies and Cougars takes place in Seattle on a to-be-determined date in 2028\. There’s no indication from either school what will happen in 2029 and beyond. “I don't know much about it not continuing on,” Fisch said on Monday. “I told our team I don't know how many other games started in 1900, so I know that no one on our team ever played in a game that's that historical unless it was the Washington-Washington State game. There's no other rivalry games or games that have gone on for that long that are played \[by current UW players\]. So you know, for us, it's very important, and I think it's one in which that we want to continue to be able to compete against them and have an opportunity to see what it all looks like.” Fisch continued on, introducing the topic that complicates the Apple Cup in 2029 and beyond. “Scheduling is going to be out of our hands here soon,” he said. “So at some point we're probably going to shift, and there's going to be decisions that are made on, will it continue, and how much longer does it continue for? But right now, I know that we play them on Sunday, and we got to be ready.” The question is, will next year’s Apple Cup be the last one played in Pullman? No one on either side will touch that one right now, even though the unspoken answer seems obvious. Unless state politicians get involved, it doesn’t seem like Washington is going to give up a home game for a biennial non-marquee road trip to Pullman when a new Big Ten TV deal starts for the 2030 football season. It’s a sad reality that, like most things in college sports, it comes down to dollars and a lot of nonsense. From 1949 until 2023, the rhythm of the Apple Cup remained essentially unchanged. It was played in Seattle in odd years and on the other side of the Cascades in even years. UW traveled to Spokane most years WSU hosted before the Cougars kept the game on campus in Pullman permanently starting in 1982\. Aside from a Dec. 4 game in 2010, the rivalry game was held in the second half of November. Step one of a major post-WWII change came in 2024, when it was a “neutral site” game held at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, on Sept. 14\. That was the first of at least four straight September Apple Cups, with this year’s Sept. 6 game becoming the earliest in the 126 years of the rivalry. Washington travels to Pullman next season for a game currently scheduled for Sept. 16, and then the Cougars return in 2028\. I don’t think the Huskies will see the Palouse in 2029\. Washington is currently scheduled to play four conference games that season, plus a non-conference away matchup with Tennessee on Sept. 1, 2029\. A game at WSU would be a sixth road game, something that won’t align with a Washington budget that is currently severely impacted by receiving a half-share of Big Ten TV revenue. Pat Chun, Washington’s athletic director, hasn’t said much about the game’s future recently. But after the Pac-12 crumbled, he made it clear that the seventh home game was an important piece of the financial puzzle, and generally side-stepped questions about how that might pertain to the Apple Cup. It seems clear, though, that Washington is not going to give up a seventh home under any circumstances. Washington currently hosts four Big Ten games in even years and five in odd years. That setup allows for one non-conference road game in odd years, but will that continue to be WSU in 2029? If so, that means no neutral-site games or home-and-home series with major opponents from the SEC, Big 12 or ACC. So, how often the Dawgs and Cougs face off partially depends on how often WSU is willing to come to Seattle without a return visit from UW. WSU does not currently have any future games scheduled against Big Ten or SEC teams after the 2028 Apple Cup, indicating that opportunities against high-level opponents may be rare. It’s difficult to imagine Washington heading east more than once or twice per decade. Is WSU and its fan base willing to accept, at best, a 3-for-1 deal? If the WSU athletic department puts finances over feelings, the Cougars may well agree to a lopsided deal. This is a rivalry, however. It may take another tectonic college football shift for the rivalry to get back on track. The Apple Cup seems destined for at least a one-year hiatus in 2029 followed by a tenuous future. Fisch did not elaborate on his “Scheduling is going to be out of our hands here soon” comment. The Big Ten and SEC — the two conferences most in control of an out-of-control college football world — have talked about crossover games. Washington’s home-and-home with Tennessee in 2029 and 2030 are not technically part of that, but there could be more deals like that when the College Football Playoff inevitably continues to expand to 16 or 24 teams. There is growing talk of a more NFL-like model that would include 32-40 teams in an upper division. That could include centralized scheduling, instead of a current model of nine conference games and three every-program-for-itself non-league matchups. Washington would most likely be included in such a mega league, while WSU’s chances seem slim. That could add yet another wrinkle to a historic rivalry in hospice care and dying faster than any apparent realistic recovery can save it. It’s led to awkward silences in split households, and mixed feelings on both sides about whether or not the game should be played on an annual basis. Like an on-the-rocks marriage, both sides have reasons to continue it. Both sides have reasons to end it. Washington linebacker Taariq “Buddah” Al-Uqdah hopes the game is saved somehow. The fifth-year senior began his career at WSU in 2022 before transferring to UW for the 2025 season. His first season with the Huskies ended in Pullman, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury during Washington’s 59-24 win at Martin Stadium. “From a person that played on both sides, I really think it's a special game,” said Al-Uqdah, a Los Angeles native. “You know, although both sides may not see it as that, I really think it's a very serious game. I think we still need rivalries like that, so I really think it should continue. “I would love to see it continue.” It will for three more years. After that, nothing is certain.