The next two years of Oregon football schedules will sustain the annual rivalry matchup with Oregon State and provide balance on a year-over-year basis thanks to several changes made by participating teams.
Owing to Oregon’s move to the Big Ten Conference for the 2024 season, the Ducks had been scheduled to play an eight-game home slate next fall, which included long-standing games contracted with Hawai’i, Idaho, Boise State and Texas Tech.
The Ducks football team then was scheduled to play just six home games in 2025, again featuring a nonconference slate of games with contracts agreed upon years in advance.
Thanks to scheduling adjustments with various future opponents, Oregon will now play its preferred number of seven home games in each season and will have a home-and-home with Oregon State in 2024 and 2025.
The Ducks and Beavers first met in football back in 1894, and their rivalry series is the fifth most played in college football history. In 127 all-time matchups between the two, Oregon leads the series 68-49-10.
The 2023 game was played before 59,987 fans, the fourth-largest crowd in Autzen Stadium history.
Sustaining the rivalry for fans throughout the state was a priority to the UO athletic department as it sought to adjust the football schedules for the next two seasons.
The 2024 home opener will remain a matchup with Idaho on Aug. 31. But instead of hosting Texas Tech and then Boise State over the following two weeks, the Ducks will host the Broncos on September 7 before playing at Oregon State on September 14.
In 2025, rather than playing at Boise State on September 13 Oregon will host Oregon State on Sept. 20. A three-game contract with the Broncos was reduced to two, home dates for the Ducks in 2024 and then 2026.
Thus, Oregon will now host seven home games in each of 2024 and 2025, in line with the balance the program seeks to provide predictability in pricing for season-ticket holders, revenue for the athletic department, and competitive balance for the football team.
Under the scheduling rotation in the Pac-12 Conference, Oregon hosted four conference games in even-numbered years and five in odd-numbered years; future nonconference scheduling was conducted with that in mind, to achieve seven home games per year.
In the Big Ten, which also plays a nine-game conference schedule, that was flip-flopped, necessitating these adjustments — which have the benefit also of sustaining the series with Oregon State for two years.
Consistency for season ticket holders was a driving force, particularly given the historic level of interest in UO football season tickets.
The athletic department has already received more than 2,000 requests for new season tickets in 2024 when the Ducks will look to build on the previous two seasons under head coach Dan Lanning.
The highly anticipated 2024 home schedule includes Big Ten matchups with Washington, Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, and Maryland, along with nonconference home games against the Vandals and Broncos.
The 2025 schedule at Autzen Stadium will see USC, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Indiana visit in conference play, as well as nonconference matchups with Oregon State, Oklahoma State, and Montana State.
The previously scheduled 2024 matchup with Texas Tech has been postponed to 2033. The Red Raiders will instead play at Washington State next season.