• Oregon State will play its final game of the season against Washington State in the only official Pac-12 Conference game of the year.
• The Beavers previously defeated the Cougars 10-7 in a non-conference matchup earlier this season.
• Interim head coach Robb Akey views the game as a chance for OSU to become Pac-12 champions and end a tumultuous season on a high note.

Oregon State football has finally reached its final game of the season.

After a long, tumultuous few months, the Beavers (2-9) have the chance to finish on a high. OSU is travelling to Pullman, Wash., to take on Washington State (5-6) in the one, and only, official Pac-12 Conference game of the year.

“It’s the last time this group of people is ever going to be together again,” OSU interim head coach Robb Akey said. “That’s it.”

For numerous Beavers, Saturday’s contest against the Cougars will be the last college football game of their careers. For some, it’ll be their last in Oregon State uniforms and for others, they’ll be back next season.

But Akey said it’s valuable for these players to be able to close out their careers in the fashion they are. A rivalry game, a conference matchup against a team Oregon State’s already beaten this season.

“It gives us the opportunity to be Pac-12 champions,” Akey said. “That means a hell of a lot, in my opinion.”

A Pac-12 rematch

Oregon State hosted Washington State on Nov. 1 at Reser Stadium. The Beavers, at the time, had just rattled off their first win over FCS program Lafayette and were sitting at 1-7 through a bye week.

The Beavers came out on top in a low-scoring, dramatic affair, 10-7. It was Akey’s second win in as many games in charge and a high point of the Oregon State season.

It wasn’t technically classified as a Pac-12 contest, but rather just a typical regular-season matchup. Regardless, the win meant that OSU had pulled off two wins in a row for the first time in 2025. But those are the only two wins the team has garnered so far.

Having the opportunity to play, and beat, the Cougars again is exciting for Akey and the Beavers.

“It’s a cool situation that you get to go about. So we’ve tried to approach it as a cool situation,” Akey said. “You’ve got two teams that are going to know each other pretty well and two teams that fought their tails off against each other the last time they were together.”

WSU is 1-1 since the the earlier meeting. The Cougars beat Louisiana Tech, 28-3 at home, then travelled to Harrisonburg, Va., where they lost to a ranked James Madison squad, 24-20.

OSU is 0-2, with losses at home to Sam Houston (21-17) and at Tulsa (31-14).

On the season, Oregon State averages over 356 yards of offense to Washington State’s 308 yards. The Beavers outrank the Cougars in nearly all significant offensive statistic categories, especially in the run game.

Defensively, the script is almost completely flipped. Washington State gives up nearly 70 fewer yards per game, over eight points per game less, and are superior in nearly all significant categories.

It presents the opportunity for a fun, crazy contest, Akey said.

“They’ve got a good defense, they play well,” the coach said. “It’s got the makings to be a hell of a game.”

Two teams looking to end the season with a smile

Neither Oregon State nor Washington State has delivered the season it had expected back in August. Both teams have undergone one of the rockiest, unpredictable conference realignment transitions in the NCAA to remain with the Pac-12.

For Akey, some of the main takeaways from this season are off the field.

“Life deals you adversity, and you deal with it,” Akey said. “What I will take from this is these players. We’ve built some cool relationships with them and those are going to last forever.”

And for the players, it’s one last chance to enjoy this specific group’s company on the field together.

“It’s the last chance they’re going to get to play together,” Akey said. “They’ve spent a ton of time working … and it didn’t play out the way that everybody had hoped that it would.”

Since his inaugural press conference, Akey has has emphasized that he’s in Corvallis to help the Beavers have fun, smile and produce a season they can look back on and be proud of and enjoy. He said this week that he believes this is a great opportunity for that.

“They get one last chance to be able to compete together and to fight for one another,” Akey said. “That’s an unbelievable deal.”

Landon Bartlett covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at lbartlett@salem.gannett.com or on X or Instagram @bartlelo.