Washington moves to the Big Ten in 2024. Washington State is still TBD on its next step.

What does that upcoming split mean for the future of the Apple Cup? When he held his introductory press conference on Tuesday, new Washington athletic director Troy Dannen was asked that exact question.

His answer? If the Cougars want the game to continue, it’ll be on the Huskies’ terms.

“I’ve got a lot to learn, but I would say this: What’s happened in college athletics, a lot of the history, rivalries, things that have been traditions have been destroyed for the evolution of college athletics. And we’re going to continue to evolve,” Dannen said.

“My bias is I don’t want to lose the history, the traditions. I also know that I have this economic model, particularly as we move to the Big Ten, where we’re playing with people that have an economic model that is far greater than ours, we have to be really careful. Seven home games is a piece of the economic model going forward that UW has to have.”

Washington will alternate each year between four and five home games in the Big Ten.

“Long-term, we have to have seven home games and the revenue generated by seven home football games in order to be in a financial position to compete in the league that we’re moving into,” Dannen said.

UW president Ana Mari Cauce did jump in at that point.

“If I could just add that we are having some conversations and Troy isn’t 100% up to speed on them because he’s been here for 26 hours,” she said.

When UW announced its move to the Big Ten months ago, it said in a release that the school was “committed to preserving the rich tradition of the Apple Cup rivalry with Washington State University in all sports, including football.”

There’s precedent throughout college football for teams to continue in-state rivalries out of conference. In the Big Ten, Iowa plays Iowa State every year.

Washington hosts Washington State on Nov. 25 this season.

Next year’s game would be in Pullman.

Update (7:30 p.m.):

Late Tuesday night, a UW spokesperson issued the following statement to Saturday Out West about the game:

“We deeply value this historic rivalry and look forward to continuing discussions with WSU on the future of the Apple Cup as conference realignment and other parts of the college athletics landscape continue to change.”