It appears that college football realignment has claimed another pair of future football games.
The Oregon Ducks and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors originally scheduled a three-game football series back in 2014. The agreement called for two games in Eugene, Ore., in 2020 and 2023 and in one game in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2024.
The first game of the series in 2020 was not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was later rescheduled for Sept. 13, 2031 in Eugene. The series finally kicked off on Sept. 16, 2023 in Eugene, and the Ducks defeated the Rainbow Warriors in that contest, 55-10.
Just over a month before that first game was played, the Oregon Ducks officially announced that they were leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten beginning with the 2024 season.
Fast forward to January 2024 and it was first reported by Brett McMurphy that Oregon had backed out of the 2024 game against Hawaii that was supposed to be played in Honolulu. The cancellation was likely due to a myriad of factors involving realignment and the Ducks’ new Big Ten schedule.
FBSchedules.com later learned, through an open records request to the University of Hawaii, that the two schools agreed to reschedule the canceled game in 2024 for the 2032 season.
With those changes, Hawaii and Oregon were set to play on Sept. 13, 2031 in Eugene and on Aug. 28, 2032 in Honolulu. However, the amended contract featured a number of options for the future series, including canceling the 2024 game only, complete cancellation, convert the 2032 game to an Oregon home game, or any other option that was mutually agreed upon.
According to a copy of the latest amendment to the contract dated June 17, 2024, Hawaii and Oregon have chosen to completely cancel the remaining two games of the series (2031 and 2032). Per the terms of the agreement, Oregon will pay Hawaii a $1 million cancellation fee, and that payment was slated to be made on or before June 30, 2024.
With that, two more college football games have hit the chopping block due to realignment and more will surely follow.
Hawaii is scheduled to open the 2024 season in Week Zero on Saturday, Aug. 24 at home against Delaware State. Oregon opens up its first season as a member of the Big Ten the following week on Saturday, Aug. 31 at home against Idaho.
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