Jared Cowley (KGW)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon released its full schedule for the 2024 college football season on Wednesday, the first it will play as a member of the Big Ten, and there’s one notable omission on the list of opponents: Oregon State.
For the first time in nearly 80 years, the Ducks and Beavers will not play a rivalry football game. The last time the rivalry game wasn’t played was 1944 and that was because the game was canceled in 1943 and 1944 because of World War II.
This time around, the reason doesn’t seem quite as serious as a world war. When the Ducks announced before the start of the 2023 season that they were leaving the Pac-12 to become a member of the Big Ten, they left the Beavers behind, and apparently the rivalry game with it, at least for next season.
The news release from Oregon didn’t mention the omission of Oregon State from the schedule. After Oregon announced its departure for the Big 12 in August, the university left the door open for the rivalry game to continue in the future, though it didn’t specify that would happen in 2024.
Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said at the time that “our goal would be to schedule Oregon State in every sport that is possible,” The Oregonian reported in August. “Football schedules can be complicated because of how far out it is and the difficulty of playing nonconference games later in the year, but our goal would be absolutely to continue to play Oregon State.”
That may be the answer as to why the teams aren’t playing in 2024. Football schedules, especially non-conference games, are scheduled years in advance. The Oregonian reported that the Ducks and Beavers have some games scheduled out in the 2030s. The Ducks can’t play the Beavers in the final game of the regular season like they did when they were both in the same conference, meaning the two schools are limited to those three or four non-conference games at the start of each season to schedule a rivalry game.
If Oregon and Oregon State are to resume the rivalry game sometime in the future, it will probably be at least a couple years down the road when the non-conference schedule opens up for both schools.
Here’s Oregon’s 2024 schedule:
- Aug. 24 – at Hawai’i
- Aug. 31 – Idaho
- Sept. 7 – Texas Tech
- Sept. 14 – Boise State
- Sept. 28 – at UCLA*
- Oct. 5 – Michigan State*
- Oct. 12 – Ohio State*
- Oct. 19 – at Purdue*
- Oct. 26 – Illinois*
- Nov. 2 – at Michigan*
- Nov. 9 – Maryland*
- Nov. 16 – at Wisconsin*
- Nov. 30 – Washington*
Home games in bold
* Big Ten Conference game
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