As we go into the 2024 College Football National Championship weekend, I thought it would be the appropriate time to check in on OSU. That’s right, Oregon State University.
Nick here with the Malcontents™ Pacific Northwest dispatch.
In case this is baby’s first conference realignment, the College Football World saw the University of Oregon, University of Washington, USC, and UCLA move from the dying PAC-12 into the Big Ten. Why was the PAC-12 dying? One should ask former PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott.1
In the year of our lord 2024, the University of Oregon played in the Big Ten Championship game. Conference realignment is not new to the sport of college football;2 however this version of it felt more earth shattering to fans and left some with an unsavory taste in their mouths. Is it because fans are losing geographic rivalries? Could it be because the fans are getting a glimpse behind the curtain of the Television Networks’ influence? Maybe it is because some fans do not like how the money flows in college football? Regardless of the reason, this most recent version of conference realignment has placed its money-ladened hands on the psyche of college football fans and will not let go.
Enter Oregon State University. The beloved Beavers, along with Washington State University, were left at the altar by their former Pac-12 neighbors. The aforementioned teams dashed for the Big Ten while Cal and Stanford bolted for the ACC. Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado all fled to the Big 12. This left Oregon State and Washington State as the PAC-2.
Before the conference split, Oregon State was on the rise. Jonathan Smith was a trusted up-and-coming coach, Damien Martinez was an All-PAC-12 First Team Running Back, Aidan Chiles was a 247 Sports 4-star quarterback prospect, the 2022 offensive line was a Joe Moore Award Semifinalist, and the defense was returning several key starters.
After having the rug swept out from under them, I wanted to check in on Oregon State fans after the 2024 season. Oregon State football finished the year with a 5-7 record, they missed out on a bowl game, and are desperate to find a path forward in their new landscape. As a college football fan living in the Pacific Northwest, I sensed a shift from OSU fans. I wondered about OSU fans’ feelings regarding the past three seasons. I wanted to understand their thoughts and feelings on the realignment news, and most of all, I wanted to know where they saw Oregon State football heading in the future.
My first line of inquiry was to a friend of mine, Cooper. He is a Portland native, an Oregon State Alum, and avid sports fan. When asked how he felt going into the 2024 season, he shared, “There was a clear before and after when Jonathan Smith left. I knew that him leaving along with most of our O-Line and star running back was going to hurt. It really felt like the team was turning around with him in charge, but being a smaller school in the football food chain I understood it. I thought 2024 was going to look rough. Unfortunately, that was nothing new for me being a fan for the last 23 years.”
I asked him what he, as a fan, wanted for Oregon State after the University of Oregon went to the Big Ten. Cooper replied saying, “If I am being completely honest, I got serious FOMO.I was hoping we would get picked up by any of the other larger conferences or retain what we had left of the PAC-12 and sign some bigger name programs to replace what we lost… it was a depressing feeling like getting picked last in a pick-up game.”
Shifting the conversation to the future, I wanted to see how he felt about the Civil War, the annual rivalry game between Oregon State and the University of Oregon. In years past, the Civil War had taken place during rivalry week which is the last Saturday of the regular season in November. After Oregon left for the Big Ten some were unsure if the rivalry would even continue to be played due to conference scheduling conflicts. The two teams faced off in week 3 of the 2024 season, September 14th. I asked Cooper if he thought the game felt different now. He shared that it felt weird playing Oregon at the beginning of the year. He told me, “For as long as I can remember, we are always playing spoiler against Oregon. And some years they have a LOT to lose and we are able to ruin their near-perfect season in the last conference game of the year. That’s lost on us now. The hatred and animosity has stayed the same and seemed heightened this past year as it felt like we were on a bit of a ‘fuck you’ tour to all the teams that abandoned the Pac-12.”
I also reached out to another friend of mine, Katie. Katie is an Oregon State football season ticket holder, and has been an avid fan for the last 15 years. She grew up in a House Divided situation, so spent time watching both the Ducks and Beavers.
When asked how she felt after the news of Oregon and others leaving for the Big Ten, Katie stated, “Initially I was cautiously optimistic, as most Beaver fans end up being to our own detriment, that we had a leader in Jonathan Smith to keep the program on track through the turmoil.”
The mental turning point for the fans I spoke with was the announcement of Jonathan Smith leaving for the Michigan State Head Coach job. Expectations wildly shifted upon hearing the news.
Katie explained to me, “there was so little carryover from the previous seasons which hasn't been typical for Oregon State that it felt like [she] didn't even know the team anymore. As always [she] still hoped for the best and cheered my team on through some really terrible and hard to watch games (which unfortunately isn't something new for Beaver fans).”
One thing I will always love about sports and sports fans is the endless optimism. The “why not us?” mentality can be seen at any level of sports fandom, including Oregon State fans. Even after the entire conference abandoned them, their head coach left for a lateral position (that’s right, I said lateral), and star players left, the Beaver fans are not throwing in the towel. I asked Cooper and Katie both what Oregon State’s ceiling looks like now. Cooper immediately responded with, “We do what Boise St. did this year, as an undefeated team and sneak into the CFB playoffs. Ya never know what could happen!” Katie echoed the sentiment and said “go 5-0 vs the Ducks over the next 5 years and are serious contenders in the playoffs.”
Oregon State’s 2025 football schedule seems to reflect the fans’ cautiously optimistic mentality. Oregon State plays Texas Tech and Oregon in the month of September. The out of conference opponents consist of Houston, Appalachian State, and Wake Forest before ending the season with their Pac-2 partner in crime, Washington State University.
Oregon State is not going quietly into that good night. Equipped with their chainsaws and ‘fuck you’ mentality, they are going to keep moving forward. As all good sports fans say, you never know what could happen.