The return of the Columbia Cup: OSAA committee recommends renaming second-tier 6A football bracket

The Columbia Cup ran in 2022 and 2023 before the OSAA changed the name to the 6A state tournament, with the championship playoff called the Open Division

Sunset won the most recent Columbia Cup in 2023. After a one-year renaming, the OSAA is proposing to bring it back in 2025. / Leon Neuschwander

Meet the new second division of the OSAA Class 6A football playoffs.

Same as the old second division.

At the OSAA Football Ad Hoc Advisory Committee's most recent meeting Jan. 8, it recommended changing the name of the second tier of the 6A playoffs back to the Columbia Cup, the name the tournament had in 2022 and 2023.

The recommendation is buried in a table outlining its recommended playoff bracket sizes and allocations, with the committee recommending that 6A advances 24 teams to the 2025 postseason — four fewer than in 2024 and eight fewer than the state's highest classification qualified from 1979 to 2023.

The committee's recommendation is for the 6A championship bracket to return to 16 teams. In 2024, there were 12 teams that made the cut, with the top four seeds receiving first-round byes.

The six league champions would qualify for the top bracket along with the 10 highest non-automatic qualifiers in the final OSAA rankings. The next eight teams in the rankings would qualify for the Columbia Cup.

Part of the rationale for reducing how many 6A teams qualify for the postseason is that the most recently proposed 6A special districts had only 41 teams — down from 50 a decade ago — with Cleveland (which had been slated to drop to 5A) back in the PIL.

Glencoe, which dropped to 5A and won the Northwest Oregon Conference title, returns to the 6A Pacific Conference, while Willamette moves up from the 5A Midwestern League to the 6A South Central Football Conference.

Class 5A would have 37 teams next season, with Crook County moving up from the 4A Greater Oregon League to rejoin its Central Oregon rivals in the Intermountain Conference and Milwaukie jumping from the 4A Cowapa League to the NWOC.

David Douglas and Gresham drop from the 6A Mt. Hood Conference to the NWOC, and McNary drops from the SCFC to a reconfigured 5A Special District 2.

Special District 2 no longer houses state champion Wilsonville and semifinalist Silverton, which will split next year with the Foxes returning to the Mid-Willamette Conference. The two-time reigning state champion Wildcats remain in the district, joined by holdovers Canby and McKay and newcomers Aloha, Forest Grove, Hillsboro and McNary.

Class 4A remains with 28 teams, with Woodburn (dropping from 5A) and Cottage Grove (jumping from 3A) taking the place of Crook County and Milwaukie. The only 4A league untouched by the changes is the Big Sky, with the Cowapa gaining Gladstone, the Oregon West getting Cottage Grove back, and the Greater Oregon adding The Dalles.

The biggest changes come to the Tri-Valley, which has only two teams returning (Estacada and Molalla), joined by Cascade, Stayton and Woodburn.

The committee's final meeting is scheduled for Jan. 22, when it will finalize its recommendations for the OSAA Executive Board to take up at its Feb. 3 meeting.

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