What Should We Call the Oregon State-Washington State Rivalry?

With conference realignment having left the Pac-12 Pac-10 Pac-8 Pac-2 a blighted wasteland that only the Beavers and Cougars remain cursed to roam. Wherever both teams end up in the future, whether its a new Pac, the Mountain West or maybe even the Big XII, it seems likely that OSU and WSU will be there together.

With the future of the Apple Cup and the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry games in doubt, the Beavers and Cougars could be each other’s biggest rival for the near future. With today’s matchup about to kickoff, the Beaver-Cougar rivalry needs a cool name to go with it. Here are some thoughts.

The Pac-2 Championship

Okay, this is a little boring, let’s shake it up a bit.

The 2Pac Championship

Ok that’s much better, despite the fact that conference realignment has left of us not feeling much California Love. I imagine most coverage of today’s game, and most OSU-WSU matchups going forward, are going to focus on the Pac-12 angle so there’s an argument to be made that the teams should embrace it in a fun way. Still, it feels like looking back instead of looking forward. How do you feel?

Clashcadia

Whenever two teams in any sports, or really any sort of competition, play each other on a regular basis there’s an urge to slap a reference to the Cascade Mountain Range on the event. MLS’s Cascadia Cup might be the most prominent, but if you do a search for Cascade Cup you’ll find a number of results across a wide variety of sports. For an important football game I think you need to put some extra oomph in the name, hence Clashcadia. If you think that sounds bad, consider my first thought was Fracascadia, which is much worse.

Evergreen Game

Many rivalry games are named after local geography or some sort of local crop. I’m sure Pullman and Corvallis have a lot in common, but the first thing I think of when I think of Oregon and Washington is trees. Trees everywhere. Evergreen also lends a touch of resilience to the game; when all the other games have died off so certain schools can lose to Ohio State by 20 points annually, Oregon State and Washington State will still keep trucking along.

So what do you think? Someone out there must surely have better ideas than those presented here. Let me know in the comments.