Rivalries Are the Heart of College Football. But Many Are Going Away.

Travis Beard, wearing a T-shirt commemorating Oregon State’s epic comeback against its rival, the University of Oregon, two years ago that ended with football fans storming the field, was nursing a beer last Saturday on a Reser Stadium concourse, trying to ward off despair.It was a futile task.Oregon State has taken worse beatings at the hands of Oregon, but last week’s thumping — which ended 49-14 — felt so much more dispiriting to fans like Beard, who attended his first game in the Civil War, as the rivalry is known here, more than 40 years ago.Conference consolidation, seeded with television money, has wrought bigger, bicoastal leagues that will provide more marquee games.But it has also threatened rivalries that are central to college football’s identity, which until recently was largely distinguished from North American professional sports by its regional followings and states (and sometimes homes) with divided loyalties.Oklahoma will not play Oklahoma State this season for the first time since 1910, largely because of bruised feelings over Oklahoma’s move to the Southeastern Conference.

Lincoln Riley, the University of Southern California coach, was lukewarm this summer about extending his school’s storied rivalry with Notre Dame after 2026 because of the rigors of its new Big Ten schedule.And while conference hopping has rekindled a handful of rivalries — the University of Texas will play Texas A&M for the first time since 2011 now that Texas has moved to the SEC — it has shifted others to new conferences, like Arizona versus Arizona State now in the Big 12.Some have uncertain futures, while others have disappeared entirely.

U.C.L.A.and Cal, the flagship schools of the University of California system, will not play each other this season for the first time in 92 years....