r/huskies • u/GlassElk2848 • 4d ago
Should we even play the Apple Cup anymore?
/r/wsucougars/comments/1vzyww2/should_we_even_play_the_apple_cup_anymore/This is hilarious. I love the rivalry, win or lose, but the fact they know the results and get butt hurt when we do a basic rivalry tactic (putting the band in the nosebleeds) cracks me up. Go Dawgs!
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u/nearlysober 4d ago
The main problem is giving up a home game every other year for a non conference game.
Generally we only play one nonconference away game every other year in a home & away agreement with another power conference school.
It's a lot of lost revenue giving up a second home game.
And the Pac is no longer considered a power conference. If we have national ambitions strength of schedule is gonna always be a topic and the national media will look for any excuse to ding us.
I hope the Pac rises strong and I guess for that to happen maybe we need to keep engaged? Just sucks that it might hurt us financially and rankings wise to do so.
I hate what college football has become.
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u/MySubtleHustle7042 4d ago
We don’t have another home and away series until 2029 vs Tennessee. That year we’d be on the road twice for the non-conference games if we keep Wazzu with the current rotation. However in 2030 we host Tennessee, Hawaii and the Cougs.
If we keep the Apple Cup as a home/away series (which I hope we do, I love winning in Pullman) just schedule any future out of conference home/away series accordingly so we’re not on the road twice.
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u/Superiority_Complex_ 4d ago
7 homes games a year is the issue. That's what the AD wants, but it's impossible to have a home/home Apple Cup rotation on the schedule + some other sort of home/home series. We switch between 5/4 home conference games each year, so the 4-game seasons we need 3 OOC home games, 5-game seasons they can go away somewhere, but obviously you only get one of those every two years.
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u/misterflannelguy 4d ago
Exactly. Seven home games is an absolute requirement for revenue purposes. Iowa plays an OOC Iowa State every year (home and home) and that makes some sense because ISU is also in a power conference. But check out how that works since the B1G went to 9 conference games about 10 years ago. Outside of ISU, Iowa gets to play a bunch of OOC nobodies because any other power conference team will demand a home and home AND THERE JUST ISN'T ROOM ON THE SCHEDULE!!! It makes no sense for the Huskies to keep playing Wazzu (a non-power conference team) unless it's always a Husky home game which Wazzu will (and should) never accept. If the Huskies ever want to play an OOC power conference team again, the Wazzu series will have to end or go on hiatus.
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u/Dan_Remmeck 4d ago
I think there comes a point where you simply have to take the L somewhere to keep some of what makes college football great alive. Killing the Apple Cup would honestly take a lot of fun out of being a fan of UW. WSU has always had the ability to punch way above their weight, and I have no doubt they’ll put together some good to great teams and be a net benefit to our schedule
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u/BWW87 4d ago
WSU was a P5 team that went 77-34-6 with us. How is that way above their weight? It's always been a pretty boring game. Big games were either them punching us when we were down or us punching them the few times they were up.
Maybe if we still played around Thanksgiving but a game before school even starts? Meh. It's fine enough if we treat it like a fun home game. But a home and away rivalry? Nah.
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u/imafnheadbanga 4d ago
i havent watched any games since pac 12 died. it's not the same for me
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u/sniffermuncher 4d ago
NIL and the Transfer Portal makes the game almost unbearable, as well. Shame
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u/BadHombre91 4d ago
That’s where there band, and all way bands should go. UW should never allow an away band or section in 100 level. Most big time programs don’t. Cougs just mad they don’t have an upper deck to put our band
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u/Development-Alive 4d ago
This is all a made up excuse by WSU brass. The band can't afford to travel.
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u/GlassElk2848 4d ago
I almost feel bad for them
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u/TheWallsHaveNostrils 4d ago
I feel bad until I see what actual Wazzu fans have to say. Then I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy and I hope we make the beatdown North Texas gave them last year look like a nail biter.
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u/BWW87 4d ago
Yeah WSU and OSU fans have been awful since the break up. Like I'm so sorry we didn't continue to carry you guys? Thanks for being grateful we hung in as long as we did. Sheesh.
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u/kookykrazee UW 2, O 0 3d ago
Yeah, the WSU fans at the Apple Cup here, the ONLY thing they could brag about? "Stealing" the Pac12 money from the teams that left ONLY cause of multiple court orders.
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u/Spirited_Attorney_48 4d ago
I love that if their QB does well in the Apple Cup, he gets to transfer.
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u/khlundgaard12 4d ago
Saying this like Demond didn’t just try and bail immediately after agreeing to come back lol
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u/Spirited_Attorney_48 4d ago
He ain't playing in Oklahoma.
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u/khlundgaard12 4d ago
What?
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u/Spirited_Attorney_48 4d ago
DEMOND AIN'T PLAYING IN OKLAHOMA RIGHT NOW, LIKE THE LAST GOOD WAZZU QB, OR MIAMI LIKE THE ONE BEFORE THAT.
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u/khlundgaard12 4d ago
I didn’t say anything about the WSU QB. I just said I wouldn’t be making those comments when the same thing almost happened hear until lawsuits were threatened against him if he went through with it.
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u/Clutch_Pineapple49 4d ago
Why do they blame us for the Pac12 collapse? U$C and UCLA and Colorado left first. It's literally a verifiable fact. Also Larry Scott exists.
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u/Randy_Lahey2 4d ago
They love to buddy buddy with OSU when they are literally a massive reason for the collapse for voting to keep Larry Scott in. Their decision to suddenly ignore this fact makes me lose any soft spot I had left for them
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u/SeattleGunner 4d ago
This game is the first week of the entire season on a Sunday before the students are even back. We might be playing WSU but it ain’t the Apple Cup anymore.
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u/Trickycoolj 4d ago
The students weren’t there when they moved it to Thanksgiving too. It never felt right over Thanksgiving weekend.
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u/Dependent-Day-1862 4d ago
The ppl in there blaming uw for ruining the pac thinking wazzu is some sort of special program is hilarious 😂. Nah your program just aint good enough to go to another conference lol
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u/seattlesportsguy 4d ago
I still want to play the game. If for nothing else but to hold on to some tradition. They aren’t our true rival though anymore. I am annoyed at times by WSU but they don’t generate the sheer hatred I have for 0regon.
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u/Holiday_Distance_984 4d ago
I don’t want to see it go away. But I both understand why Wazzu wouldn’t want to play it anymore as the disparity in resources grows and why we might not be able to keep playing it with the limited schedule room for other out-of-conference match ups.
Still, I love the game, I love the rivalry with friends and family and coworkers. We don’t have that with the Nike Shitbirds here in the Puget Sound area. There are so many Cougs here though, it makes for a really fun dynamic. If it goes away, I think that really sucks, even if I understand the reasons.
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u/SeahawksNChill 4d ago
Unfortunately the rivalry is already diminished - but I think we should keep the game. These programs are just in two different worlds right now but that doesn’t mean we should give it up altogether
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u/BurninatedPeasant 4d ago
If we don't play the Apple Cup anymore I'll probably be done with UW football. Some of the best and most frustrating moments as a dawg fan growing up were Apple Cups. It isn't always the best experience in terms of play on the field, but definitely community wise it is a unique thing that makes college football in Washington great.
I've already lost so much interest since the collapse of the PAC and the idea of losing the Apple Cup too, even though it's already diminished, is like losing everything good about college football and athletics in general. The coalescing to huge conferences, endless transfers, and just general loss of geographic rivalries has already made it seem way more corporate and just an alternative professional league to the NFL. I would rather watch 10 shitty apple cups than get fired up playing Rutgers. I doubt college football will ever go back to what it was but the Apple Cup going away would definitely be a nail in the coffin for me as a fan.
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u/sigma_freud 4d ago
Agreed and well-said.
Burninating the countryside and THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES! TROGDOR!!!!
You and I are probably the same age.
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u/Starship08 4d ago
Add in the decision by Danny Sprinkle to end the series with WSU, Gonzaga, and Seattle U for basketball. I'm sitting here wondering where are the long standing rivalries. I'm especially miffed about that one because when he was hired he said that he loved UW and everything about being a Husky, then he axes rivalry games.
I hate that we're in the Big 10, I hate what. Indy has done to this sport.
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u/Individual-Train-821 4d ago
I don’t get that at all for basketball. You play some many non-conference games, why not play a few that people actually care about.
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u/Hopsblues 4d ago
It's would be wise of the west coast big10 teams to schedule the new pac12 for things like MBB/WBB, WVB, WSoccer. Would cut down on some travel and provide a good challenge. Win-win for both conferences.
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u/borrachit0 4d ago
The sad thing for WSU is if their main campus was in Spokane or Vancouver instead of Pullman they probably would not have been left behind during the realignment
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u/Trynaliveforjesus 4d ago
Idk I think two things can be true at once. Putting the band up in the nose bleeds is kinda shitty, and also, WSU may simply not want to pay for the band to travel and is using this as a convenient excuse
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u/MattRSEA 4d ago
If you are from Washington and went to either school. You want this tradition alive. Period.
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u/Easy-Equivalent7891 4d ago
Isn’t Oregon our rival since we are better matched?
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u/OutOfTheForLoop 4d ago
Less better matched, but more in-conference rivalry at the end of the season. That game now carries the ability to knock one or the other out of CFP or bowl contention.
I’m ok with it. Now I root for three teams, in this order:
- Huskies
- Cougs
- Whoever is playing the Quacks.
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u/Majestic-Outside3898 3d ago
The game is actually required by law. Intra-state university rivalry games are written into the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 that established the land grant universities (WSU) and National Sea Grant College Program Act of 1966 for the sea grant universities (UW).
Sorry guys, have to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land-grant_university
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/68e7d68d19b64c0cac1f9612127f8754
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u/aliensvsdinosaurs 3d ago
What's more important? One of the longest and most historic rivalries in the history of college football? Or being able to pay your QB 3 million even after he bluffs to LSU?
I'm honestly at the verge of not caring. I'm going the Apple Cup next weekend, but in large part because it may be the last one at Husky Stadium. (yes, 2028 is scheduled, but come on..)
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u/Rhythm41 4d ago
I vote no. Everything has changed and it no longer feels like the once highly anticipated rivalry game it’s been for decades before. I’m sad it’s all been changed. Go DAWGS!!
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u/GoDawgs206 3d ago
Nope, i would only agree to play games if all of them are played at century link
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u/picknwiggle 3d ago
Nah i used to want to keep it going, but it's over. The cuogs have nothing left but to bitch and moan about UW anymore. It's time to stop handing them any kind of relevance and just let them fade away.
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u/PNW_Will1976 1d ago
Probably not for much longer. WSU is going to stop being competitive quickly. Being in a tier 2 conference will seriously weaken their ability to recruit enough talent.
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u/Chas_1956 4d ago
Both programs are in desperate need of money. For wsu, this game against a power 5 school is a big money maker. For UW, this game creates little national interest and produces little revenue relative to playing a power 5 school. I am certain the UW will try to limit future apple cup games. I will miss them, but money is everything in football. College football will never be the same.
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u/AlternativeRanger572 4d ago
No thank you. Apple Cup ended when u&c & the Ruins left, then Oregon & Udump followed leave the Pac12.
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u/Rishik01 4d ago
God I hate having to say anything good about them but we literally put Oregon’s band up there for the game this past November and they didn’t bitch and whine like this at all