Isn’t every home football game a Homecoming?
If you made plans to visit Pullman the weekend of Oct. 24-26 for Family Weekend, you’ll need to reshuffle your calendar. That as the original weekend of WSU’s Homecoming game, but the school announced yesterday that plans have changed, and Homecoming is now Sept. 6:
Dear Cougar Nation,
Thank you for your support of Washington State University and Cougar Athletics.
Throughout all the changes and realignment in the past two years, one thing has remained constant – Cougar Pride. We want to thank all of you for your emails, calls, and DMs. It… pic.twitter.com/aAlRoMXdKg
— WSU Pullman (@WSUPullman) March 28, 2025
The preamble to the meat of the announcement might lead one to believe the school got all sorts of complaints about the Homecoming date. Perhaps that’s true. The university is going through a ton of changes right now, most notably a new president. This change is small potatoes compared to the rest, but still important for football fans.
So instead of celebrating alumni against Toledo, it’ll be against San Diego State in what (presumably) will be better weather. I may have just jinxed it, though.
This brings me to something I’ve always wondered: What’s the point of Homecoming nowadays? The original purpose way back when was to welcome alumni back to campus. Now, alumni come back to campus every football Saturday, making every game a Homecoming of sorts. The university has a lot of traditional events saved just for Homecoming Week, and that’s good. But the overall tradition of Homecoming as it relates to the football game may have passed us by long ago.
Anyway, it’s only March and you have plenty of time to cancel your hotel if you made plans for Oct. 25. Good luck and go Cougs.