One of college basketball’s longest-running regional rivalries is coming back. The Washington State Cougars and University of Idaho Vandals men’s basketball programs are set to renew their storied series with a nonconference game in Pullman, a Washington State official confirmed. The matchup will mark the first renewal of the Battle of the Palouse since the series was put on hold in 2022.
Whether the game expands into a full home-and-home series — with Idaho hosting a contest in Moscow — has not been confirmed, though that possibility remains on the table. Vandals fans in Latah County would welcome a return game at the ICCU Arena, giving the Palouse rivalry its full cross-border character.
A Historic Rivalry with Deep Roots
The Battle of the Palouse is no ordinary regional matchup. The two programs have met 281 times since 1906, a run that made it the longest continuously running series in college basketball before it was suspended. Washington State holds a commanding all-time advantage at 168-115, a reflection of decades in which the Cougars competed at the Power Conference level while Idaho navigated the mid-major landscape.
The series had been active as recently as 2021, when WSU made the trip to Moscow. After that visit, the rivalry went dormant in 2022 — a pause that frustrated fans on both sides of the state line who had come to view the annual contest as a Palouse tradition stretching back generations.
Reviving it, even in a single-game nonconference format, is a meaningful step toward restoring one of the Pacific Northwest’s most distinctive basketball traditions.
Idaho’s Momentum Heading Into the Matchup
The timing of the renewal comes at a high point for the Idaho program. The Vandals defeated Washington State 83-81 in Pullman in November — a hard-fought road victory that helped launch what became a remarkable season. Idaho went 21-0 following that win, a run that culminated in the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1990.
That kind of sustained success has energized the Vandal fan base and elevated the program’s profile heading into the 2026 season. Idaho has been adding transfers and earning ESPN appearances as the program builds on its breakthrough campaign, signaling that the Vandals intend to compete at a higher level rather than treat last year’s run as an outlier.
A rematch against Washington State carries added weight given that backdrop. The Cougars, competing in the Pac-12, will enter as the program with the deeper historical record, but Idaho arrives with momentum and a recent head-to-head victory to draw confidence from.
What the Rivalry Means to the Palouse Region
For Latah County residents and the broader Palouse community, the Battle of the Palouse is more than a basketball game. It is a geographic and cultural matchup that reflects the agricultural region straddling the Idaho-Washington border — a stretch of rolling wheat fields and small cities where Vandal and Cougar loyalties have coexisted and competed for well over a century.
Moscow and Pullman sit just eight miles apart, making this one of the shortest interstate rivalries in college sports. When the two programs meet, fans from both campuses often show up in force on either side, giving the game an atmosphere that larger markets rarely replicate.
The sports community on the Palouse has had plenty to celebrate recently. Former Central Valley standout Emily Love is headed to the Hooptown Hall of Fame, a reminder of the deep basketball culture that runs through this corner of the Pacific Northwest.
What Comes Next
The Pullman game is confirmed, though a specific date has not been publicly announced. The more significant question for Idaho fans is whether a home-and-home agreement materializes — bringing Washington State back to Moscow for the first time since 2021 and giving Latah County its own stake in the renewed rivalry. Athletic department officials on both sides have left that door open, and pressure from fans who remember the series at its fullest will likely push toward a full reciprocal arrangement. Until then, the Battle of the Palouse picks up where it left off, one game at a time.