Moving forward into the Big Ten is also a time to look back and remember the Pac and a lot of great times. One of the knocks that people “Back East” like to say about West Coast football is the notion that “they haven’t played anybody,” as though there are no good teams on our side of the country, or that West Coast teams don’t play intersectional games, either in bowls or the regular season, or that they don’t play anyone good.
In the first article in this series, I looked back at the past 50 years of games for the Washington Huskies to see every time they played a ranked opponent. That needs a little update, since the Huskies completed the season beating SIX ranked opponents after knocking off #3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl, though sadly they didn’t quite make it seven after they dropped the national title game. Still, 6-1 vs. ranked teams is their best season ever in terms of beating ranked foes. There’s a lot of transition going on and a ton of uncertainty, so we’ll see what happens next year.
As we’re heading to the Big Ten, though, it might be fun to look at our former Pac brethren who are making the trip as well and to see how well they’ve done over the same time period and look both at their overall success as well as the teams they’ve beaten.
NOTE: For the sake of ease and uniformity, I’ve used the AP poll at game time as the measure of “played a ranked team.” I know this can lead to some kinda weird results (like Colorado vs. Oregon last year – ranked when they played, in the toilet bowl by the end of the year), but over the course of 50 years I’m going to lean on the law of averages evening that out with teams that were unranked when we played who might have ranked up later (like this year’s Arizona squad). This is for fun, not for my dissertation, so those are the ground rules.
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First up is Oregon, which this year had a winning record vs. ranked teams, going 4-2 vs. teams ranked at the time (see the first article for the ground rules on how ranked wins were calculated and why), beating Colorado, Utah, OSU, and Liberty and, of course, losing twice to UW. This was only the second season since 2014 that they had a winning record vs. ranked teams (2019 was the other, going 3-1).
This matched their 4-2 record vs. ranked teams in 2000 (losing to OSU and Wisconsin) and 2009 (Ohio St. and Boise St. in the game with the infamous LeGarrette Blount postgame punch). Only twice have the Ducks won more ranked games in a season, going 5-1 twice in 2012 (losing to Stanford) and 2014 (losing to Ohio St.), though arguably their best season vs. ranked opponents was in 2001 when they went 4-0 against ranked teams, beating UCLA, WSU, Colorado, and Wisconsin. Their worst season in the past decade in 2016 had kind of a funny quirk in that they only played 2 ranked opponents that year, losing to UW 70-21 of course, but also upsetting #11 Utah on the roadin the second-to-last game of the season.
Oregon has played a lot of ranked teams over the past 50 years, sometimes when they were ranked, sometimes not. Sometimes they were ranked higher, other as the underdog. They’ve played teams in conference and out, blowing out some ranked opponents and getting blown out by others and had nail-biters go both ways.
The question for today is how UW has performed against AP-ranked opponents during those years. They’ve played a total of 174 games against ranked opponents, with a total record of 76-96-2, a 0.437 winning percentage. Considering the quality of opposition, it’s a solid record. No fattening up on Directional State U. when you’re only counting ranked games.
That total of 174 games over 50 years gives us an average of 3.5 games per season. Due to quirks of scheduling, they played only 1 ranked team each season in 1984 (UW) and 1985 (Nebraska), losing both. The highest number of ranked games ever for Oregon is 6 in 1997 (going 2-4), 2000 (4-2), 2009 (4-2), 2012 (5-1), 2014 (5-1), 2022 (3-3), and 2023 (4-2).
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With all that said and done, I created a quiz to see if you can guess which teams we did the best and worst against among those ranked opponents. One caveat is that this quiz does not include teams that Oregon only played once when they were ranked (like Liberty in this year’s Fiesta Bowl). It also includes only ranked teams played in the last 50 years, so your memory might play tricks on you if you think too hard on big games played way back when. Check it out and look forward to upcoming articles on USC and UCLA soon. Go Dawgs!
Oregon State’s season came to an end in Eugene on Sunday evening, after a rocky 7th inning doomed them against the 11th-ranked Oregon Ducks. The Beavers put up a valiant effort to try and fight their way back from the loser’s bracket, but they couldn’t accomplish this incredible feat that they pulled off in 2025.
A Bad Start Changed Everything
Winning the first game of a regional is almost a must if you want to advance, and this is where things started to go south.
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After a nearly two-week layoff (since they didn’t have a conference tournament), OSU’s bats were rusty against a very solid left-hander in WSU’s Nick Lewis. Though the Beavers were able to put up a run early on, Lewis rolled with the punches and ended up throwing a complete game against the country’s seventh-ranked team. Though their bats came to life the next day, the uphill climb proved to be too much.
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Pitching Wasn’t the Issue
Oregon State came into this tournament with the nation’s best ERA, and their starting rotation was exactly as advertised.
After a good outing from Kleinschmit on Friday afternoon, Eric Segura threw a 6.2 inning gem in an elimination game against Yale. True freshman Trey Morris threw 117 pitches in the rout of WSU early Saturday, and Wyatt Queen was excellent against the Ducks off of short rest later that evening.
The Power Just Wasn’t There
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In today’s era of baseball where starting pitchers are so talented, it’s crucial to have guys that can get you runs with just one swing of the bat, especially when the man on the hill is striking a lot of people out.
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Throughout the entirety of this season, the Beavers have not been a club that hits for much power, and this makes things difficult in the postseason. In four games across the Eugene regional, Oregon State didn’t hit a single ball out of the park. In 2026 they only hit a total of 55 homers, a stark contrast from the 107 of 2025’s Omaha year.
They Ran into a Good Team With a Deep Pitching Staff
In Mark Wasikowski’s tenure with the Ducks, his team’s pitching has often been a crutch that holds them back from big postseason runs. This certainly doesn’t seem to be the case this year.
Throughout the regional that they hosted, Oregon starters looked nearly untouchable. Will Sanford struck out 14 batters and didn’t allow a run against Washington State. Yesterday against the Beavers, left-hander Miles Gosztola was phenomenal, bouncing back after allowing a run in the second inning. The Ducks also have great relievers in guys like Tanner Bradley and Devin Bell. With a lot of reliable arms to go to, it would’ve been difficult to beat Oregon twice.
PORTLAND, OR — A federal task force targeting fentanyl dealers in downtown Portland has led to nearly 100 federal charges over the past two years, and one of the leaders behind that effort is now being recognized with a national honor.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced FBI Special Agent Bobby Gutierrez as the Freedom 250 Hometown Hero, an award that honors individuals whose courage, generosity and public service reflect the ideals of liberty and civic responsibility.
The Freedom 250 initiative was created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and recognizes Americans who make lasting contributions to their local communities.
Gutierrez was selected as the District of Oregon’s Hometown Hero for his leadership, collaboration and dedication to joint downtown fentanyl enforcement missions. For the past two years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, working with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the Portland Police Bureau, has targeted fentanyl dealers in Portland.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Gutierrez has helped coordinate dozens of investigations focused on fentanyl distributors in downtown Portland. Through those efforts, nearly 100 fentanyl distributors have been federally charged.
“As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, I am honored to present Special Agent Gutierrez as Oregon’s Hometown Hero. Special Agent Gutierrez’s dedication, selfless service, and unwavering commitment have made a lasting impact on the safety and well-being of our community,” U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford said.
“Two years ago, Portland had notorious open-air drug markets, rising crime, and frequent overdoses. Thanks to Special Agent Gutierrez’s efforts, dedication, and coordination with local, county, and state partners, we are reducing fentanyl trafficking, violent crime, and overdoses downtown,” Bradford said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Gutierrez has been a “tireless investigator and steadfast partner” in efforts to restore downtown Portland to a safe and vibrant community.
Kam Wah Chung and Company was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic, where co-owner Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region.
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Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society / OPB
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In Eastern Oregon’s John Day, a 160-year-old building holds one of the biggest collections of traditional Chinese medicine in the world. Kam Wah Chung and Company, once part of a thriving Chinatown, was owned and operated by Lung On and Ing Hay for over half a century. It was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic where Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region. His practice included herbal remedies, noninvasive treatments, essential women’s healthcare and more.
Archaeologists and historians are continuing to deepen our understanding of the legacy of Kam Wah Chung and traditional Chinese medicine in Eastern Oregon. We join them to learn more about Ing Hay’s important contributions to rural communities in John Day and beyond, as part of our special series in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology and Jefferson Public Radio about unearthing Oregon history.
Listen to all episodes of “The Evergreen” podcast here.
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