Oregon State males’s basketball coach Wayne Tinkle is not going to return after the 2025-26 season, the varsity introduced Thursday. Tinkle has the choice to complete the marketing campaign earlier than departing from his submit, however has not but determined whether or not to see the season out, based on John Canzano. The Beavers are 16-14 this season and 9-8 in West Coast Convention play.
Tinkle’s exit comes after a 12-year run with the Beavers that featured a number of the program’s highest highs and lowest lows. It additionally coincides with Oregon State’s transfer from the WCC again into the Pac-12, which debuts as a reconstructed convention starting subsequent season.
Oregon State by no means completed larger than fourth within the Pac-12 throughout Tinkle’s decade within the convention and concluded its first 12 months within the WCC with a fifth-place end. Tinkle has a 175-204 general document for his tenure, with an 82-141 mark in convention video games
“We’re grateful to Wayne for his dedication to Oregon State and for the management he has offered our males’s basketball program,” athletic director Scott Barnes mentioned in an announcement. “He has represented Beaver Nation with integrity and dedication. As we method the daybreak of the brand new Pac-12 period, we consider it’s in one of the best curiosity of our males’s basketball program to transition to its subsequent chapter. These selections are by no means straightforward, however we’re centered on positioning our program for sustained success in a quickly evolving collegiate athletics panorama.”
The Tinkle period at Oregon State shall be most remembered for this system’s miraculous run to the 2021 Elite Eight. The Beavers entered the NCAA Match that season as a No. 12 seed and pulled off upsets of No. 5 Tennessee, No. 4 Oklahoma State and No. 8 Loyola Chicago earlier than falling to No. 2 Houston. It was one in every of two NCAA Match appearances for the Beavers throughout Tinkle’s 12 years on the helm.
Whereas the Beavers reached the postseason thrice, together with a visit to the Faculty Basketball Crown final season, in addition they logged two of the worst seasons in program historical past beneath Tinkle’s management. The 12 months straight following the Elite Eight run, Oregon State went 3-28 and posted the worst successful proportion (.097) of any Beavers squad in 125 years. Tinkle additionally oversaw a 5-27 staff in 2016-17.
Oregon State making modifications forward of Pac-12 relaunch
When the Pac-12 returns as a full convention this summer season, Oregon State shall be beneath new management in each soccer and males’s basketball. The Beavers fired soccer coach Trent Bray halfway via the 2025 season and employed Alabama co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard as his alternative.
The overhaul is a part of the Beavers’ efforts to determine themselves as top-tier contenders within the new-look league. Oregon State was lengthy a bottom-half athletic division within the previous Pac-12, but it surely enters the convention’s new period as a possible chief throughout the board given its standing as a latest Energy 5 member.
2026 Pac-12 soccer schedule: ‘Flex week’ gives distinctive benefit in Faculty Soccer Playoff race
Carter Bahns
The Pac-12 has the chance to thrive as a top-six basketball convention with the addition of Gonzaga as a basketball-only member, in addition to outstanding former Mountain West colleges. For the 2026-27 basketball season, the Pac-12 will function as a nine-member league that includes Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State and Washington State.
It additionally initiatives as a possible Group of Six chief in soccer and will see its champion clinch a spot within the Faculty Soccer Playoff regularly.
