The Washington-Washington State is a century-old bitter rivalry.  It’s the regular-season ender intrastate grudge match.  It’s called the Apple Cup.  It’s been called “The Snow Bowl”, “The Crapple Cup”.  It started in 1900 and ended in a 5-5 tie.  The first victor in the series was Washington Agriculture College, later becoming Washington State University.  For the better part of a century, it’s been a lopsided affair with the Huskies going 74–33–6.

For the Cougars, it was often their bowl game as they would look to spoil Washington’s shot at a Rose Bowl, or more like 2016 Mike Leach’s 25th-ranked squad hoped to spoil 5th-ranked Washington’s College Football Playoff chances–only to get crushed 45-17.

For Washington, the game has produced iconic moments like Byron Murphy’s “Snow Bowl II” interception of Gardner Minshew and Spider Gaines’ game-winning deflection TD reception from Warren Moon with seconds left in the game.

And there’s the one where neither team winning would have any sort of post-season implication, purely the in-state bragging rights like the 2008 16-13 double-overtime “thriller” when the Cougars were able to be the final nail in Washington’s 0-12 season.  It’s dubbed the “Crapple Cup”. The most recent Apple Cup ended with Cougar QB Jayden de Lauria planting a Washington State flag into the turf at Husky Stadium, ending the Husky’s 7-year winning streak.

The Huskies would love to return the favor in 2022.

But now the Apple Cup may have a very different feel in the very near future.  If, as expected, the Huskies move to the Big Ten conference as USC and UCLA will in 2024, as was approved today, what would an Apple Cup feel like?  One oddity is that the two teams could be paired in the postseason and not just at the end of the regular season.  However, the game would simply become would be teams with a season-ending contest from one state in different conferences.

Exciting?