As Oregon and Washington head to Big Ten, a new chapter in the rivalry begins

The Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies will likely enter a new chapter of their long-standing rivalry as new members of the Big Ten.

The landscape of college football is going to look a lot different in 2024 than it has in the past, and that is especially true for the Oregon Ducks.

While the expanded College Football Playoff will have an impact on every team in the nation, Oregon is one of several teams that are moving to a new conference, joining the Big Ten along with Washington, USC, and UCLA.

The new expanded conference offers a ton of exciting matchups for the Ducks, but it could potentially change some things that Oregon fans have come to know and love over the last several decades. In particular, there’s a good chance that rivalries will look quite a bit different in the future.

Oregon will still play the likes of Washington, Oregon State, and USC going forward, but with the addition of games against Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, and several other Big Ten teams, there’s a chance that some of the existing rivalries get watered down.

This past week on the Sco-ing Long Podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Stewart and Zachary Neel discussed this. In particular, they talked about Oregon’s rivalry with the Huskies. While it definitely stood as the biggest rivalry for the Ducks throughout their time in the Pac-12, Neel argues that it might lose some of its steam going forward, for various reasons.

“I think that going into the Big 10, this rivalry loses a little bit of juice,” Neel said. “The rivalry is at its best when both teams are good and competing for a conference championship. I don’t think that we’re going to see that again for quite some time with Oregon being at the top of the Big 10. I don’t think Washington’s there right now. They won’t be this year, and they likely won’t be next year. Five years from now? Maybe, but that kind of depends on where Jedd Fisch is and how long he stays at Washington.”

While the Huskies made it to the national championship game in 2023, the departure of a number of their best players to the NFL draft hurts, and the subsequent destruction of the roster, once head coach Kalen DeBoer left to take the top job at Alabama, left Washington with uncertainty going into 2024.

The past few years have been great for the Oregon-Washington rivalry, as the two teams competed for conference championships. Earlier this century, though, the Ducks had a massive advantage, which led to a watered-down hatred between the two schools.

“There was a stretch when Oregon beat Washington 12 times in a row,” Neel said. “I’m not saying that’s going to happen again over the next decade but I think we will see a bit more Oregon dominance because of where Oregon is and where Washington currently is. The game definitely matters. It’s very important for fans, there’s so much heart and so much history there. I just don’t see the rivalry really gaining importance now that you’ve got Oregon up against teams competing for those conference championships like Ohio State, like Michigan, like Wisconsin.”

Stewart, who experienced the Washington rivalry up close and personal, and never lost to the Huskies in his career, had different thoughts on the matter.

“I’m always going to go down to the history,” Stewart said. “The history is more than just football. It’s a local battle, a battle on the gridiron, and a battle between two states. I think it’s just an important game as far as bragging rights go, as far as recruiting goes.”

Even if the era of dominance returns for Oregon, and they do find a way to get past Washington more often than not over the next decade, that doesn’t change how big of a rivalry this should be to Stewart.

“You can play a team 10 times and beat them 10 times and still hate them,” Stewart said. “That’s kind of the tradition that I think you’ve got to carry. Oregon must look at UW as a threat through recruiting and its existence in the Northwest.”

We will see how the rivalry feels in the first year of the new expanded Big Ten for both Oregon and Washington in the final week of the regular season. The hate and vitriol may be there, but it’s hard to say that there will be a ton on the line when it comes to season outcomes.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]