Bowl Eligibility Should Be Celebrated

Image courtesy of Oregon State Athletics

The modern era of OSU football has unquestionably spoiled Beaver Nation. From Ken Simonton’s Parker Stadium scamper vs. the Ducks in 1998 to the Fiesta Bowl in 2001 to five consecutive bowl wins from 2003-2009, to Gar…..to Jonathan Smith’s current team, we’ve had more to cheer about in the past quarter-century than our fore-Beavers could have dreamed of. And yet, it still struck me as curious that the Beavers achieving bowl eligibility on Saturday night vs. Colorado was met with a collective shrug. Was this not a milestone worthy of celebrating?

I was lucky enough to be a student in 1999 when the Dennis Erickson-led Beavers finally broke through against Cal to clinch a winning season, then secured a bowl game by beating Arizona the next week. Both times, fans rushed the field, delirious with joy. Middle-aged men, no longer spry enough to vault themselves onto the turf from the stands above, openly wept in the stands, their tears wiping away the pain of decades of losing seasons. Going to a bowl game was cause for celebration, to be proud of the team’s accomplishments, and it continued this way for the next several years.

And then, suddenly, it wasn’t good enough to “just” make a bowl game anymore. Welcome to the age of “accepting mediocrity.”

The phrase first entered my consciousness when people were suddenly frustrated with Mike Riley’s inability to get to a bowl game in 2005. Never mind the fact that we had been to five bowl games in the previous six years, this one year slide (from 6-5 to 5-6) was unacceptable. Fans flooded message boards and call in shows with vitriolic statements like “if you don’t want Mike Riley fired, you’re ACCEPTING MEDIOCRITY and part of the reason for the losing season.” That 2005 season started with the opening of the rebuilt east grandstand of Reser, a concert by Montgomery Gentry and a win over a Boise State team that had just three losses in the previous three seasons combined. We beat a ranked Cal team on the road and won at Husky Stadium when it was still fairly rare to do so. In fact, we had only three wins total against Washington from 1976-2004. 

And yet, I’ll bet when you think of the 2005 football season, you remember Matt Moore throwing six interceptions in a loss to Arizona or the fact we finished with a losing season. I don’t necessarily blame you, those are things I remember too, mostly because of how the season was viewed by Beaver Nation in general. 

It was around this time that I first heard people suggest they were going to voice their displeasure by no longer donating to the athletic department or purchasing season tickets, as if the way to make the team better is to provide less support. The “Can Riley” signs would show up early in 2006 as the Beavs lost their first two Pac-10 games of the season. Matt Moore was booed, fans clamored for the back-up……sounds like a pretty bleak year, right?

The Beavs ended up 10-4 that year, knocked off USC, won six of their last seven conference games, and beat a good Missouri team in the Sun Bowl. It didn’t seem to matter much to Beaver Nation at large though, as Mike Riley never enjoyed universal support again at OSU. Despite winning 36 games and three bowl games over the next four seasons, fans weren’t happy with “just another bowl game.” Twice we were one win away from going to the Rose Bowl, but Chip Kelly and possibly the most explosive offense in college football history blocked our path. Just our luck that our biggest rival would capture lightning in a bottle in a chubby visor wearing dude from New Hampshire and also the keys to Phil Knight’s Scrooge McDuck-style money bin at the same time.

Pop quiz: What is the school record for consecutive seasons with a better than .500 winning percentage?

It’s five, held by Dee Andros from 1966-1970. He’s the only one. Times OSU had winning season four or more years in a row:

1928-31 (Paul Schissler)

1938-41 (Lon Stiner)

1955-58 (Tommy Prothro)

1966-70 (Dee Andros)

2006-09 (Mike Riley)

That’s it. We don’t just win a majority of our games a majority of the time. We are a have-not in a “have” league. 

Last year, when we beat USC in the Coliseum, Jonathan Smith famously said “Hear this. We ain’t done yet!” in the locker room. But it wasn’t said in a “stop celebrating this win” kind of way. He wasn’t chiding the players for being happy. Had we fell short of bowl eligibility last year, that moment was still worth honoring at the time. 

So enjoy that sweet sixth win, Beaver Nation. When people from schools like Stanford, Arizona State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Michigan State or Auburn are watching other schools play during bowl season, you’ll be watching the Beavs. Enjoying this result doesn’t mean you won’t be upset if the team fizzles down the stretch. It doesn’t mean you don’t want to win as many games as possible. Bowl games are still rare enough at OSU that they should all be cherished.

But hear this:

Things for Beaver Fans to Gnaw On:

• The Beaver men’s soccer team continued their streak of sister-kissing results vs. Pac-12 opponents after a 1-1 draw against the the top-ranked Washington Huskies Friday night at Lorenz Field. The Beavs led for over an hour of the game, but Washington finally leveled with four minutes left on a well-placed header off a corner kick. Mo Thiam’s first half goal is the only goal UW has allowed in conference play so far. The Beavs continue to show they can play with anyone in the nation, but wins are probably needed down the stretch here to convince the committee that they belong in the 48-team bracket when the NCAA announces it on November 14th. A rematch with the Huskies in Seattle to close the regular season on November 10th will be a great chance to leave a final impression on the selection committee.

• Beaver Nation again showed out, with a season high 1,258 fans packing Lorenz for a rainy Friday night game. The Beaver women also enjoyed strong support at Lorenz this weekend, with over 550 spectators for both games, as they celebrated the careers of Reese Moffatt, Abby Schwartz, and Emma Deane on senior day. Deane in particular spent five full seasons in Corvallis, coming in just as OSU changed head coaches from Linus Rhode to Matt Kagan. The Beavs would change coaches again before the 2021 season from Kagan to Lauren Sinacola. Deane stayed through it all, earned her degree last season, and is currently working on a master’s degree at OSU. Congrats, ladies!

• If you’re wondering how the Pac-12 football championship would have shaken out if the conference was still split into two divisions, the answer is “exactly the same.” The Ducks hold a two game lead over the rest of the former North, and the South would’ve been a 3-team race between USC, UCLA, and Utah. The odds solidly favor having a North-South matchup in the championship game anyways, but as my dad once told me at the Peacock during Dad’s Weekend when I told him that the hot girl I was talking to probably wasn’t interested in anything more than talking: “Stranger fucking things have happened, Andy.”