The ‘TV’ home for Apple Cup is set, may create some controversy

May 30, 2024, 1:43 PM

The Apple Cup logo is seen on the Husky Stadium field in 2023. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY BRENT STECKER

Seattle Sports

The changes for the 2024 Apple Cup continue to pile up.

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The annual rivalry game between the UW Huskies and WSU Cougars now isn’t a conference battle, with Washington joining the Big Ten and Wazzu one of just two remaining Pac-12 teams.

It will no longer be played the weekend of Thanksgiving, as has been custom, instead landing on the third week of the season.

Even more of a departure is the fact that the 2024 edition will be played at a “neutral” site: Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, which is just across town from Washington’s Husky Stadium but still completely across the state from the WSU campus in Pullman.

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Well, add another change to the list, and don’t be surprised if this one comes with just as much controversy as the others for Huskies and Cougars fans. The TV broadcast of the game won’t be on an actual TV station at all.

On Thursday, it was announced that the 2024 Apple Cup will air on Peacock. That means that if you want to watch the Apple Cup live this year, you’ll need to pay for a Peacock subscription, and if you want to watch it on your TV, you’ll need to make sure you have a means to get the app.

One thing that isn’t changing: the WSU radio broadcast, as always, will be available on Seattle Sports 710 AM, the Seattle Sports app and SeattleSports.com.

This year won’t be the first Apple Cup ever played at Lumen Field, and UW Huskies insider Christian Caple of On Montlake and Seattle Sports used that fact to provide a little perspective after seeing some displeasure online about the Peacock news.

Not sure what the Peacock uproar is about. The last time they played the Apple Cup at Lumen/CenturyLink, the game was broadcast on Versus.

— Christian Caple (@ChristianCaple) May 30, 2024

Thursday’s news also came with one more important detail, though this one is much less likely to raise ire among fans. The official kickoff time for the Saturday, Sept. 14 rivalry clash will be 12:30 p.m.

A few other kickoff times and/or TV homes for UW and WSU games were also announced Thursday.