PAC 12 Deciding to Drop the Name of the “Civil War” Rivalry Between Oregon and Oregon State

The University of Oregon and Oregon State, will discontinue their tradition of referring to their rivalry game as a "Civil War".

The schools released the following statement earlier today:

This football rivalry dates back to November 3, 1894, when Oregon State beat Oregon 16-0. The two have had 122 meetings since then, and the game is the fifth-most contested rivalry in the country. Eugene and Corvallis are only separated by 50 miles, so the hatred runs deep between the in-state rivals. Overall, Oregon leads, 66–47–10 (.577) in the series.

A couple of their most notable recent matchups came in 2009 and 2010. Their 2009 game was referred to as the "War for the Roses", because whoever won the game was guaranteed to play in the Rose Bowl, Oregon won, 37–33, after a monster game from RB LaMichael James who rushed for 166 YDS, and 3 TD's.

When they met the following year, things were a little bit easier for the ducks. Oregon, came into the game second in the Bowl Championship Series standings. Winning the game would clinch them a spot to play in the BCS championship game. The Ducks won 37–20 to secure a spot against Auburn in the national title game, which they lost 22-19 to Cam Newton's Tigers.

Former Oregon QB, Dennis Dixon played an instrumental part in the changing of the name. In a video released by the Oregon Football Twitter account, Dixon gave his thoughts on the much needed change. "I am happy to see two universities coming together to drive change, an everlasting change. I’m excited to be part of this change,. Thank you to all that have put their time and effort into this. Forever grateful", said Dixon.

Although the series name is mostly associated with the football matchup between the two schools, it does apply to all the other sports as well.