These past few years have been a crazy time for the landscape of college football. The Washington Huskies and nine other schools are departing the Pac-12 for various other conferences. The Huskies and three other Pac-12 teams are joining the Big Ten conference next year. All of this leaves Oregon State University and Washington State University struggling to determine future plans for their respective sports.
The Cougars and Beavers have been granted complete control of the Pac-12’s future and have stripped voting powers from the 10 departing schools. The Huskies will face some big challenges in the Big Ten as many really strong football teams are in this conference, including the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, and the Wisconsin Badgers.
These teams frequently rank in the AP top 25 list, so Huskies fans expect to be the Cougars of the Big Ten. For WSU, expect the Cougs to be the big fish in the small pond for Mountain West teams. Washington State and Oregon State have finalized a $14 million agreement with Mountain West to play as a “6+1” model, meaning that the Cougars will play 6 games against Mountain West opponents and a version of the “Pac-2” championship at or against Oregon State.
The details are still being finalized, and two teams will not be eligible for the Mountain West Championship. The Beavers and Cougars plan to be a two-team conference under NCAA bylaws for 2 years when they must reach the 8-member minimum. WSU and OSU are negotiating TV contracts for their home games next year and Mountain West games are covered by Fox and CBS Sports.
As for the traditional Apple Cup and Civil War rivalry games (which have now been played for over a hundred years), the Apple Cup rivalry game between the Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars will continue for at least 5 years. The 2024 Apple Cup will be untraditional as the game has been swiped from Pullman for next year and will now be played at a “neutral site” in Seattle, which will be Luman Field, home of the Seahawks and Seattle Sounders.
From there, the games will return to alternating between the 2 campuses, starting with Pullman (Cougars) in 2025 and then Seattle (Huskies) in 2026 and so forth. Secondly, the 2024 Apple Cup has been scheduled for September 14th, a break from the Thanksgiving Weekend slot it has been traditionally held since the mid-2000s. The Civil War game between Oregon and Oregon State will not be played in 2024, and it remains unclear if the classic rivalry game will ever return.
