WSU football released its 2026 football schedule in conjunction with the Pac-12 conference Wednesday night. The non-conference games were already planned before the schedule release but were officially confirmed Wednesday night as part of the newly realigned conference’s inaugural schedule announcement.
The Cougars open the season in Seattle for the 118th Apple Cup, the first time the game will be played in Week 1 in the rivalry’s history. WSU follows the Apple Cup with a road game against Kansas State before returning to Pullman for back-to-back home games against FCS Duquesne and Arizona.
Conference play begins on Oct. 3 when the Cougs host Fresno State. WSU then travels to Utah State and Oregon State before hosting Boise State. The Cougs end the month of October at San Diego State before a Week 10 bye. Colorado State travels to Pullman before WSU visits Texas State for its final road matchup.
In the first year of the new Pac-12, WSU will play each of the seven conference members and will have a flex game in the final week of the season to fill the eighth conference game slot that remained unfilled until Wednesday since no other Pac-12 team scheduled a fifth conference opponent.
WSU is projected to host Oregon State for the home-and-home flex game as they travel to Corvallis, Oregon, earlier in the season. The Beavers have served as the Cougars’ unofficial conference rival since the dissolution of the old Pac-12.
WSU is one of four teams guaranteed a home game in the final week, but the opponents are still subject to change, including for the best interests of inclusion in the College Football Playoff.
With the creation of the conference schedule, the Pac-12 guaranteed a minimum of six home games for each team and four home games against Pac-12 opponents. No team will visit the same venue twice during the season.
The Pac-12 also made a unique change to the format of its conference championship game. The game will now be held on the campus of the No. 1 seed, breaking from the previous host site at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. None of the Power 4 conferences use the home-field format, but several Group of 6 conferences, including the American Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference, use the format the Pac-12 just adopted.
The Cougs will face three programs for the first time this season: Kansas State, Duquesne and Texas State. WSU has faced its nine other opponents at least once in the last three seasons.
