Oregon, Oregon State to No Longer Use ‘Civil War’ Rivalry Name

The Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers will no longer play their rivalry games under the name of the “Civil War,” the schools announced Friday.

Oregon said in its statement the decision came “following mutual discussions as well as conversations with university officials and input from current and former student-athletes from both schools.”

Oregon—Oregon State is the fifth-most played football game among FBS schools, with the rivals having met 123 times.

This is a difficult line to toe, because I’m not exactly on board with re-naming everything for the sake of doing so and I don’t think anyone watched the Ducks and Beavers play football and thought they were promoting the American Civil War. But if the players voiced concerns over playing in a game named that, I think it’s reasonable to listen to those and act accordingly.

I’m sure fans of the schools aren’t particularly happy, but there’s a way to fix that: you let them re-name the game. Let’s start up a contest and see who can come up with the best new name for the rivalry and go with that one.

I always liked the name of this game, but I guess things change.