- Washington is a 23.5-point favorite over Washington State at BetOnline, with Bovada listing the Huskies at -23.
- The total is set at 51 points at both Bovada and BetOnline for the 1 p.m. PT kickoff.
- Sunday marks the first time in the rivalry’s 126-year history that the Apple Cup has opened a season.
- Washington leads the all-time series 77-34-6 and enters the 118th meeting off a 59-24 win last September.
SEATTLE – Apple Cup odds favor Washington by 23.5 points over Washington State at BetOnline for Sunday’s game, the first time in the rivalry’s history the game has opened a season.
A Season Opener for the First Time
Washington and Washington State have met 117 times since 1900, for most of that history in November as the last game before bowl season. Sunday’s 1 p.m. PT kickoff at Husky Stadium, on NBC, is the first Apple Cup ever scheduled as a season opener and the earliest date the two have ever met. It is also the third straight Apple Cup played in September.
The calendar shift traces to conference realignment. Washington left for the Big Ten in 2024 alongside Oregon, UCLA and USC when the old Pac-12 collapsed to two members. Washington State spent two seasons in that two-team league before helping rebuild a reconstituted Pac-12, which adds Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State for 2026-27, its first season under the new alignment.
With the rivals no longer sharing a conference, moving the Apple Cup to opening weekend keeps it alive without fighting for a late-season date on either team’s new-league schedule. It’s the same realignment squeeze reshaping legal college football betting slates across the sport this fall, and it puts legal sports betting markets on the rivalry before either roster has played a snap.
The Roster Gap Behind the Number
Washington State is breaking in first-year coach Kirby Moore, hired after three seasons as Missouri’s offensive coordinator, with 50 new players and only four returning starters, all on offense, from last season’s 7-6 team. Transfer quarterback Caden Pinnick, the Big Sky Freshman of the Year at UC Davis last season, makes his Cougars debut against a Washington team ranked No. 17 in the AP preseason poll under third-year coach Jedd Fisch and quarterback Demond Williams Jr.
The gap showed up on the field last September, when Washington scored 28 unanswered fourth-quarter points to close out a 59-24 win in Pullman, the game previewed in last year’s Washington vs. Washington State betting trends.
Bovada opened the spread at Washington -21.5 in early August, pushed it to -24 by the end of the month and settled at -23 this week. The moneyline has been less steady, bouncing between -2800 and -1900 since Wednesday night before sitting at -2000, with Washington State’s price ranging from +900 to +1100 before settling at +950.
Bovada
- Spread
- Washington -23
- Total
- 51
- Moneyline Odds
- Washington -2000 / Washington State +950
BetOnline
- Spread
- Washington -23.5
- Total
- 51
- Moneyline Odds
- Washington -2000 / Washington State +1041
The Cougars have won two of the past five meetings, including two of their last three trips to Seattle. That recent history is the only argumetn for their side of a 23-point number.
