Oregon State‘s 2026 football schedule includes three games against Texas schools in September and its first conference game in the reconfigured Pac-12 on the road.

The Beavers will open Pac-12 play at Colorado State on Oct. 3, the first week of league play in the new Pac-12, the conference announced Wednesday night.

Oregon State and Colorado State last met in 2024, a 39-31 double-overtime win for OSU, which is 0-1 all-time in Fort Collins.

The Pac-12’s eight teams will each play a seven-game round-robin conference schedule between Oct. 3 and Nov. 21. The season’s final game, considered a nonconference game, is a home-and-home “flex” Pac-12 matchup on Nov. 28. The 2026 Pac-12 Championship game will be hosted by the first-place team on Dec. 4.

“We can’t wait to kick off the new era of Pac-12 football,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a release. “Today’s schedule release is a major milestone on our path to launch, and the creativity behind our 2026 format reflects the strategic vision for what this conference will become. With national coverage across CBS Sports, USA Network and The CW, the new Pac-12 will debut on a national stage from day one.”

OSU’s first home Pac-12 game of the season is San Diego State on Oct. 10, with Washington State visiting Reser Stadium a week later, followed by a bye week.

Oregon State is 5-2 all-time against SDSU, with five straight wins since 2000. OSU and WSU split their season series in 2025 and OSU trails the all-time series 51-58-3. The Pacific Northwest rivals are also currently projected to play in Pullman to end the regular season as the nonconference “flex” game.

The Beavers travel to Fresno State in Week 9, with the possibility of a Friday night game. The date, either Oct. 30 or 31, will be determined before the season. The Bulldogs won last year’s meeting 36-27, and lead the all-time series 9-6.

Texas State will visit Corvallis on Nov. 7 for the first ever meeting of the teams.

Oregon State travels to Boise State on Nov. 14, then hosts Utah State on Nov. 21.

The Beavers lead the series with the Broncos 6-5, but lost in the 2024 regular season finale. OSU leads USU 3-1, but lost the 2021 LA Bowl.

My wife and I have lived in Portland some half-dozen times over the past two decades-plus, which also means we’ve left with the same frequency…while always visiting as much as possible. And there’s no better way to welcome ourselves back than with the Oregon Croissant at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Northwest Portland, especially if it isn’t berry season. With blueberries, marionberries and hazelnut cream, it’s like a visit to the Portland Farmers Market within a world-class pastry.

The Oregon Croissant has been a stalwart item almost since Ken Forkish opened his eponymous bakery on Thanksgiving Day 2001. Once he developed his France-inspired croissant dough and hit the viennoiserie classics (butter, chocolate, almond, and ham and cheese), “I wanted one more that was unique to my bakery and that had local fruit in it,” he says. “And the shape that would hold it would be similar to a Danish.”

Initially, Ken’s made it with the same crème d’amande as an almond croissant. That was followed by the blueberries, and then, after the corners of the pastry are folded, an egg-wash. Individual marionberries are firmly pressed on top, so that they don’t roll off the dough as it expands and browns. There’s also a sprinkling of pearl sugar, adding sweetness—but not too much—and textural pop. The fruit is frozen, which allows it to be local and year-round, and also bakes up better (fresh berries would give off too much moisture and lose more of their shape).

But the Oregon Croissant did not achieve Peak Oregon until 2003, or possibly 2002—Forkish can’t remember exactly. That’s when he encountered Willamette Valley hazelnut growers Freddy Guys at…where else? The Portland Farmers Market.

Twenty-three or 24 years later, Freddy Guys’ hazelnut meal continues to be the basis for Ken’s hazelnut cream. “The result then fit the label Oregon Croissant,” Forkish says. “Oregon berries and hazelnuts into a unique pastry, with plenty of fruit in every bite.”

Forkish retired and moved to Hawaii in 2022, selling the business to longtime employees Randy Dorkin and Theo Taylor (Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Northeast was sold to different owners).

But not too much has changed at Ken’s since then. So it’s probably safe to say the Oregon Croissant will continue to be there for me as long as Ken’s Artisan Bakery is. “I can’t imagine it will ever leave the menu,” Forkish says. “It is unique to this bakery, and exemplifies the kind of place it is.”

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• The Oregon legislature is considering bills to make renewable energy more accessible and the power grid more resilient.
• One bill would allow homeowners to finance energy-efficient products through their power companies with no additional cost.

Bills that would make renewable energy technology a cost-neutral option for homeowners, make the electric grid more resilient by turning homes and electric cars into a virtual network of power plants and allow electric companies to self-insure are among those the state Oregon Legislature is considering in the 2026 session.

The slate of bills is nowhere near as transformative as the multiple laws passed in the 2025 legislative session, but this year’s proposed laws have the potential to make an enormous impact.

Investor-owned utilities in Oregon such as Portland General Electric, Pacific Corp and Northwest Natural receive exclusive territories in the state. In exchange, they’re regulated by the Oregon Public Utilities Commission.

These are the bills and how they would impact customers:

Senate Bill 1588 would require power companies to help consumers finance energy-efficient devices

Senate Bill 1588 would require electric companies to allow customers to buy things like electric heat pumps, energy storage systems and solar panels and pay for those items through a monthly charge on their bill. Those purchases would not increase the customer’s total bill.

That way, customers could purchase and use energy-efficient devices in their homes and not bear any additional costs. The mechanism would be similar to the way mobile carriers allow customers to purchase a new phone and pay the device off in installments.

“There’s still a cost gap that remains for too many Oregonians,” Claire Prihoda, policy manager of Climate Solutions, said during a public utilities commission meeting on Feb. 9.

Serena Campas, senior associate for policy at Rewiring America said utilities in other states have been operating similar programs for more than 15 years.

Most homeowners currently take out loans from separate companies to buy a solar power system or battery from a third party. They pay the loan at approximately the same rate they did when they were paying their full electric bill.

PGE opposes the bill and its lobbyist, Chloe Becker, said the utility is concerned about its obligations to set up the financing part of the program because it is not a lender.

Becker said that a $7,500 ductless heat pump could take 30 years for a homeowner to pay off.

“When we run the numbers using those parameters it raises questions for us about this model working in Oregon,” Becker said during a public utilities commission meeting Feb. 9.

Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, the chief sponsor of the bill, disputed the cost estimates and said it only mandates the power companies to submit proposals.

“Some of what was said is not in fact mandated at all,” Golden said.

Golden said loans for the energy efficient products would stay with the home when it is sold. That means the payment would follow the home and the next owner would still benefit from the energy savings.

“This is not consumer lending. I have heard some confusion about that. It is a utility rate tariff defining the service on terms that are just reasonable and fair determined by the public utility commission,” said Matt Flaherty, director of building decarbonization at Clean Energy Work.

The bill is next scheduled for a work session in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11.

Senate Bill 1582 would require utilities to develop virtual powerplants

Senate Bill 1582 would require investor-owned power companies to develop distributed power plant programs, also called virtual powerplants, through third-party companies.

Distributed power plants are networks of homes with solar power, batteries and electric cars that can put power back into the grid in times of high need, such as when temperatures are extremely high or low.