Wake Forest says canceling its game at Ole Miss in 2025 was “the right business decision.”
The school announced Wednesday that it had replaced its scheduled game in Oxford next season with a home-and-home series against Oregon State. News that Wake Forest canceled its trip to Ole Miss emerged a day after the Rebels came to Winston-Salem and beat the Demon Deacons 40-6.
On Monday, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said that Wake Forest violated an "unwritten rule" by canceling the second game of the home-and-home series when it did. Ole Miss now needs to find an opponent to fill that spot. Wake Forest already has.
"We are committed to making decisions that best serve our program and our student-athletes and that incudes bringing national games to Winston-Salem," Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said in a statement. "We have a high degree of respect for Ole Miss and their fans, and we congratulate them on their victory last weekend in sold-out Allegacy Stadium. But given the ongoing financial pressures of the new era of college athletics and our priority on continuing to grow resources to benefit our student-athletes, it was the right business decision to secure this two-game home-and-home series with Oregon State, and cancel the planned game in Oxford next year."
Wake Forest will travel to Oregon State in 2025 — a game that could be much more winnable than one in Oxford — and Oregon State will come to Wake Forest in 2029 or earlier.
Wake also said that it would “honor the terms of the contract” with Ole Miss in a likely nod to paying the buyout clause in the contract between the schools.
All SEC teams are required to play a power conference team as part of their four-game non-conference schedule and Wake Forest was Ole Miss’ only power conference non-con game in 2025. Kiffin said that Ole Miss may apply for a waiver from the SEC if it can’t find a power conference opponent to play.
“That’s not what we want to do, but they may have put us in an unavoidable situation not to,” Kiffin said.