Obviously, Washington needs to handle business against its nonconference opponents, and any game becomes pretty darn important if you lose it.
As with every schedule, though, Washington's 2026 slate includes several games that should see the Huskies favored by multiple scores — and the season’s final two games, against defending national champion Indiana and at Oregon, are more or less unanimously considered the biggest challenges.
But every schedule also has that distinct tier of matchups that could seemingly go either way, and which could make the difference between contending for a spot in the College Football Playoff and contending for a spot in the Sun Bowl.
This year, you could argue a full third of UW’s slate falls in that category.