Washington State finalizes 2024 football schedule, featuring six home games

PULLMAN – Washington State spent much of last fall trying to complete its 2024 football schedule, wading through the wreckage of the Pac-12 to find opponents and nail down dates.

As of Thursday afternoon, mission complete.

WSU’s 2024 schedule features six home games and six away, starting with an Aug. 31 home opener against FCS Portland State and concluding with a Nov. 30 home finale against Wyoming, one of the six Mountain West teams with which the Cougars struck a two-year scheduling agreement.

Coming later, WSU announced via release, are game times and TV designations – the latter looming large as WSU President Kirk Schulz and athletic director Pat Chun weigh the balancing act of revenue versus exposure.

Washington State also plays a neutral-site, nonconference game against rival Washington – which will then be a member of the Big Ten – on Sept. 14 at Lumen Field in Seattle. WSU’s game against the only other Pac-12 holdover, Oregon State, is set for Nov. 23 in Corvallis, Oregon.

The Cougs will play eight games against Mountain West opponents, two of which (San Jose State and San Diego State) were previously scheduled and six of which come courtesy of the scheduling agreement, which is good for two years, the grace period WSU and OSU are using to attempt to rebuild the Pac-12.

WSU will wear the Pac-12 logo on its jerseys and home field in all 12 games, Chun said in December.

The Cougars’ home matchup with Texas Tech, which will feature former wide receiver Josh Kelly and former offensive line coach Clay McGuire’s return to Pullman, wasn’t always on the schedule. The Red Raiders were originally scheduled to visit Oregon on Sept. 7, but the Big Ten-bound Ducks backed out in order to continue their rivalry series with Oregon State.

WSU’s game against UW is also the first of the five Apple Cup games – and the first nonconference one – the schools agreed to with an extension last fall. The 2025 game is set for Gesa Field in Pullman, with the next three games rotating sites each year.

The Cougs get two bye weeks built into this schedule, one on the week of Sept. 30 and the other the week of Oct. 28.

Here is the schedule in full (home games at Gesa Field in Pullman in bold):

Aug. 31 vs. Portland State

Sept. 7 vs. Texas Tech

Sept. 14 at Washington (Lumen Field)

Sept. 21 vs. San Jose State

Sept. 28 at Boise State

Oct. 12 at Fresno State

Oct. 19 vs. Hawaii

Oct. 26 at San Diego State

Nov. 9 vs. Utah State

Nov. 16 at New Mexico

Nov. 23 at Oregon State

Nov. 30 vs. Wyoming