Last Saturday the Oregon State Beavers and the Oregon Ducks faced off in Reser Stadium, Corvallis, with a final score of Oregon 49-14 Oregon State. Despite the disappointing loss for the Beavers, and the collapse of their conference last year, their future isn’t all bad.

Last week four teams announced their intentions to join the PAC-12 for the 2025-26 football season: the Fresno State Bulldogs, the Colorado State Rams, the Boise State Broncos and the San Diego State Aztecs. All four of these teams hail from the Mountain West Conference, which is also a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference, but not considered a Power 5 like the PAC-12.

This comes just a year after all but two teams (Oregon State and Washington State) left the PAC-12. Now, even though the PAC-12 only contains two teams, it is still officially known as the PAC-12 and the remaining teams retain the rights as the brand recognition is still strong. Therefore, teams from less popular conferences like the Mountain West are still interested in joining the conference. Being part of a Power 5 conference isn’t just better for their reputation, though. Schools receive even more money in TV deals, allowing them to recruit better players, improve their stadiums, and possibly even allocate more money back into academics with an increased cash flow into their sports.

So what does this mean for Oregon State? It wasn’t that long ago that the future of Beavers sports felt uncertain, with neither a “demotion” to the Mountain West nor a prospective move to another conference likely. Additionally, their head coach Jonathan Smith and a few of their best players, including quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, left the team after the conclusion of the previous season. Now it’s more likely that they will try to regrow the PAC-12 and bring it back to a full-fledged conference with Power 5 status.

The Beavers’ current record is 2 wins and 1 loss. They opened their season with a 38-15 win at home against the Idaho State Bengals and followed it up with a decisive victory against the San Diego State Aztecs. They will play the 1-1 Purdue Boilermakers this Saturday, who just suffered a 66-7 loss against the #17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.