Washington Huskies Head Coach Hopes Apple Cup Will Continue

· Yahoo Sports

Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch speaks during a weekly news conference Monday at Husky Stadium in Seattle. | Teren Kowatsch/Roundtable Sports

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars are set to continue one of the longest-running rivalry games in the country when they compete in the 114th edition of the Apple Cup at 1 p.m. PT on Sunday at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

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The annual game between the in-state rivals first began Nov. 29, 1900. The Huskies own the all-time series record at 77-34-6.

The game has been played every single year, uninterrupted, since 1945 with the exception of 2020, when the world was experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, that longstanding rivalry may soon be at a crossroads.

The Apple Cup hasn't been immune to the ongoing changes in college football. Upon Washington's move to the Big Ten, the game was changed from a Pac-12 conference game to a nonconference matchup. It was also moved from toward the end of the season to near the beginning of the year.

The current contract for the Huskies and the Cougars annual game is a home-and-away slate between Seattle and Pullman, Wash., which will extend through the 2028 season.

The game's status after the season is in doubt. The Washington men's basketball team won't be playing Washington State in the regular season for the first time since 1917. Instead, the two sides will meet in an exhibition game Oct. 25 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

In the first of a weekly news conference Monday, Huskies head football coach Jedd Fisch offered his support in the game continuing, but not without acknowledging the possibility it might not.

"I don't know much about (the game) not continuing on," Fisch said Monday. "I look at it as — I told our team — I don't know how many other games started in 1900. ... There is no other rivalry games or games that have gone on for that long that are played. For us, it's very important. I think it's one in which we want to be able to continue to compete against them. ... But scheduling's gonna be out of our hands here soon. At some point, we're probably gonna shift and there's gonna be decisions that are made on 'will it continue?' And 'how much longer does it continue for?' But right now, I know that we got to play them on Sunday and we got to be ready."

In-state rivalry games have since grown more and more uncommon due to recent conference realignment and the expansion of the College Football Playoff. When 2028 rolls around, there's a non-zero chance that the Apple Cup will be added to that list.

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