Some college football rivalries, especially the one out in the Pacific Northwest, are as old as the Second World War. The Oregon vs Oregon State rivalry survived almost everything, from generations of coaches to conference collapses. Now, for the first time since 1944, the Civil War between the two programs is officially going dark in 2026. And yet, amid the chaos, there’s finally some good news.

On Tuesday, On3’s Brett McMurphy reported that the Civil War isn’t dead after all. It’s just taking a timeout. He revealed a new four-game scheduling agreement between Oregon and Oregon State. The Ducks and Beavers will resume the rivalry in 2028 with games scheduled through 2032. There’s an exception, though. There won’t be a game in 2030. And the silence starts sooner than you think. The two teams won’t face each other in 2026 or 2027, marking the first two-year break since World War II.

According to Oregon’s official release, the Ducks will head to Corvallis on Sept. 16, 2028, before Oregon State travels to Eugene on Sept. 15, 2029. There will be no game in 2030, then the teams return to Eugene on Aug. 30, 2031, before wrapping up the agreement in Corvallis on Sept. 11, 2032

College football has now changed so much that you have to adjust to keep these rivalries alive. For over a century, since 1894, Oregon-Oregon State just happened without the need for negotiations or scheduling headaches. The Ducks and Beavers have met 129 times, tied for the seventh-most meetings in CFB history and second-most at the FBS level. It is the most-played rivalry west of the Mississippi. Since 1945, the game has been played every single year until now. 

Back then, Oregon and Oregon State never had to think this hard about keeping the rivalry alive. The game was there every season because both were in the same conference and in the same state. Then the Ducks moved to the Big Ten in 2024, the Pac-12 fell apart with JaMarcus Shephard’s Beavers and Washington State. That’s how the rivalry ended up disappearing from the 2026 and 2027 schedules. It stopped being a built-in conference game and turned into something both schools had to manually work out.

But nobody really cares about swapping this game for some forgettable early-season matchup against a smaller program. Fans in Eugene and Corvallis still care about this rivalry way more than that. So even with all the scheduling headaches, both sides kept trying to find a way to bring it back instead of letting it die completely.

Both Oregon and Oregon State wanted to keep the rivalry alive

Back in February, Oregon State AD Scott Barnes admitted as much while speaking to James Crepea of The Oregonian.

“We weren’t able to do that,” he said, pointing to scheduling issues. “That was on our side.”

Even Dan Lanning got it, and he hadn’t even been in the rivalry that long. Before the 2025 matchup, the Oregon head coach talked about why keeping the game alive was important. 

“It’s certainly a game that I hope stays on the schedule for the opportunity to play somebody in-state,” he said. “Obviously, we travel a little bit more in the Big Ten. I know their conference is going to be reset and different, and they’re going to be traveling a little bit more. I think it makes sense to have teams that can play each other. They’re relatively close.”

Then he also pointed out the history behind it all, saying, “And again, I think it’s what, 129 years this rivalry’s existed, that’s something you’d like to keep alive.”

Oregon leads the rivalry series 70-49-10, winning the last three games. But there was a point where this rivalry really looked like it might disappear. A lot of rivalries are still getting pushed aside because of the conference changes. So seeing Oregon and Oregon State keep this thing going through 2032 at least feels like a win.