A lot is at stake in the impending 109th meeting between the Washington State Cougars and the Washington Huskies. This years Apple Cup is the most important meeting between the interstate rivals in years.

The Cougars are playing their best football since the Mike Price era, when Jason Gesser led them to the 2002 Rose Bowl. Finishing the year at (10-3), WSU rose all the way to number three in the AP Polls in the 2002 season. Bill Doba would lead the Cougars to a (10-3) record in the 2003 season after Price departed to Alabama, with a roster comprised mostly of Price’s recruits to be fair.

The Cougs got off to a rocky start in the 2016 season, losing a pair of heartbreaking out of conference games to Eastern Washington and Boise State. However, not all is lost in this modern era of college football where two loss teams can still be ranked highly. If WSU is able to pull off an upset on the road against number ten Colorado on the road this Saturday, they may sniff the top ten.

Washington State has a good chance at making the Rose Bowl if they are able to pull off the upset against the Huskies at home next week. With a sold out Martin Stadium going wild, it will be a formidable road environment for UW to play in, as is always the case when the Apple Cup comes to Pullman. If WSU can handle the Dawgs at home as well as the Buffalos on the road this week, they will likely face the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship game on December 2nd.

The Huskies, on the other hand, got off to a blazing start to the season, beginning the year at (9-0). Upon losing to a tough USC team in Husky Stadium last Saturday, they fell to the number six spot in the College Football Ranking. UW takes on Arizona State at home this Saturday, perhaps a trap game, before traveling to Pullman to face the Cougs at Martin Stadium on Friday at 12:30 p.m.

The Washington Huskies are entering the rivalry game having won the previous three Apple Cups. The last Cougar win was the 2012 Apple Cup at Martin Stadium, in which WSU was (2-9) going into the matc up as well as being winless in Pac-12 play. Cougar fans had good reason to storm the field that evening in Pullman as they avoided the embarrassment of going an entire conference season without winning a game.

This year’s Apple Cup is going to be a really important game, for both the WSU Cougars and the Washington Huskies. After Houston destroyed number five Louisville last night, the College Football Playoff picture just got shaken up again. The Huskies will likely be playing for a spot in the final four since both Michigan and Ohio State are currently in the picture and they have yet to play the Big Game.

Nevertheless, it will be more entertaining if the Cougars can pull it off since the Huskies would have been so close to making the final four.