Opinion: The Corporate Erasure of the Palouse: Why Killing the UW-WSU Series is a Betrayal of Basketball
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After 111 years of rivalry and 300 meetings, the University of Washington and Washington State are reportedly scrapping their annual clash for the sake of a schedule. It is a cold, corporate move in an era where tradition is no longer sacred.
In the modern landscape of college athletics, we are told that the game is evolving. We see it in the chaotic churn of the transfer portal and the unchecked flow of NIL money. But there is a difference between evolution and erasure. The reported decision by the University of Washington and Washington State to discontinue their men's basketball series isn't evolution; it is a corporate liquidation of one of the sport's most enduring legacies, as Sports Illustrated first reported.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review revealed that the rivals could not settle on terms for the annual game in the upcoming season. While a University of Washington spokesman has attempted to hedge, stating that the Husky schedule is not yet finalized and cannot verify that the game won't be played, the implications are staggering. If the report holds, this will be the first time since 1916 that these two programs have failed to meet on the hardwood.
To put the scale of this loss into perspective, one only needs to look at the history. Since 1916, these programs have played between one and four times every single season. From 1930 to 1954, the intensity was so high they met four times a year, occasionally playing four consecutive games. Over the course of their history, they have played exactly 300 times, with the University of Washington claiming 189 of those victories. This isn't just a game on a calendar; it is a century-old dialogue between two institutions that defines basketball in the Pacific Northwest.
But in the eyes of the current administration, it seems this dialogue is no longer worth the effort of scheduling. The coldness of this approach was foreshadowed last November. Before facing the Cougars, University of Washington coach Danny Sprinkle admitted that while the matchup is a rivalry, "it wasn't that important to keep it on the schedule," though he noted it is important to others.
This sentiment reveals a dangerous trend: the prioritization of scheduling convenience over cultural heritage. When Danny Sprinkle took over as the UW coach for the 2024-25 season, he similarly felt no need to preserve the annual game against Gonzaga, a series that had become heavily one-sided in favor of the Zags. Now, the Huskies are reportedly applying that same logic to their own state rival.
It is a move that spits in the face of the legends who built these programs. Sports Illustrated wrote that "Apparently Marv Harshman just turned over in his grave, as did George Raveling and Hec Edmundson." These men didn't build programs based on "scheduling efficiency"; they built them on the back of fierce, recurring battles that mattered to the fans and the community.
Even the proposed alternative is an insult. The Spokane Spokesman-Review reported that while an official game may be off the table, an exhibition game or scrimmage could take place in October. Replacing a storied rivalry game with a scrimmage is the athletic equivalent of replacing a Thanksgiving feast with a protein shake—it provides the basic nutrients, but it strips away all the meaning.
We have seen this pattern before. The schools have navigated various eras, including a home-and-home series that persisted with only a few exceptions in 1965, 1967, 2007, and 2013 (the latter three involving tournament pairings or classic meetings). They survived the transition of the Huskies leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and the Cougars facing independence. In the last two years, they maintained the tradition with one game a year, resulting in UW wins of 89-73 in Seattle and 81-69 in the Palouse.
If the University of Washington is comfortable letting a 111-year-old basketball tradition wither on the vine because it doesn't fit a corporate scheduling model, one has to wonder what else is on the chopping block. Does the football Apple Cup share the same precarious future?
When we strip away the rivalry, we strip away the soul of college basketball. The game is not merely about the X's and O's or the efficiency of a non-conference slate; it is about the history that binds a region together. By treating the UW-WSU series as an optional line item that can be deleted for convenience, the university is signaling that tradition is a liability rather than an asset. It is a corporate move in a space that should be governed by passion, and it is a tragedy for every fan who remembers why this game mattered in the first place.