“The right business decision:” Wake Forest’s canceled Ole Miss matchup – Old Gold & Black

After Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin blasted Wake Forest football in Winston-Salem on September 14, he announced that Wake Forest had opted out of their two-year contract and canceled their scheduled visit to the University of Mississippi in 2025.

Wake Forest agreed to pay Mississippi $750,000 to escape the nearly decade-old contract that called for the two schools to play at their respective home venues in 2024 and 2025. Within a few days, Wake Forest was scheduled another football series with Oregon State University John Currie, Wake Forest vice president and athletics director, called it the “right business decision.”

“This is rarely done,” Kiffin said after the first game of the two-way agreement. “I've never really heard of it before and it really puts us at a huge disadvantage… It obviously wasn't very appreciated that they put us in this situation.”

The “disadvantage” Kiffin spoke of is a new requirement for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Programs like Ole Miss. SEC member schools are currently required to schedule a non-SEC opponent in another major “power conference” – or a school that is considered a “major” independent program – as part of their annual football schedules.

Once I met that criteria by scheduling a game with Wake Forest, an ACC member, Wake Forest’s “buyout” of its own contract Ole Miss could not meet that requirement. This is the only non-conference game that Ole Miss didn't pay their opponent's program to plan this season.

While Kiffin addressed the cancellation in the postgame press conference, Clawson gave no indication that he was aware of the violation. Clawson instead criticized Ole Miss' defenders for “clearly flopping” on several drives during the game.

But that wouldn't stop Kiffin's frustration from growing national headlines.

“Now we have to find someone, and most people are all scheduled,” Kiffin said. “And even if you find someone, you have to pay them. Actually, it’s kind of an unwritten rule not to do that.”

Behind the contract

The contract between the two schools was signed in 2014 under the previous athletic directors of both football programs.

Accordingly Emails between the two current athletic directors received from DeaconsIllustratedCurrie informed Mississippi Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter that Wake Forest would cancel its own away game against Mississippi, scheduled for September 13, 2025. That was sent a day before the breach of contract award was raised to $1 million.

In a September 18 press release from Wake Forest University Athleticsfour days after Kiffin first broke the news, Currie described the cancellation as being in his show's best financial interest.

Currie attributed the scheduling change to the “ongoing financial pressures of the new era of college athletics and (Wake Forest's) priority to further increase resources to serve our student-athletes.”

While the Mississippi-Wake Forest affair left both schools with gaps in next year's schedule, Currie and his program quickly adapted. In the same press release about the canceled Ole Miss matchup, Currie announced that Wake Forest had agreed to another one Home and home Series with Oregon State University.

Wake Forest football head coach Dave Clawson explained the decision to replace the Ole Miss series with Oregon State in the same day's edition Dave Clawson Show.

Clawson admitted he knew about the deal before playing against Ole Miss in Winston-Salem last weekend, but said no announcements should be made until Wake Forest finalizes a new contract with Oregon State – which is a game in 2025 and another in 2025 envisions 2029.

Clawson too reiterated Currie's message about the financial responsibility of the decision.

“I assure Wake Forest fans this: In my entire time here, whether working for Ron Wellman (former Wake Forest athletic director) or John Currie, we have never spent money to get out of a game,” Clawson said. “We would never take a million dollars or any other amount of the university’s money and spend it that way.”

He continued: “We're going to come out of this as a net winner financially – a significant net winner – and people are saying, 'How can this happen?' I will not delve into the contracts.”

Accordingly a report from The OregonianOregon State plans to pay Wake Forest $750,000 to schedule the series. Additionally, each home team will pay the away team $100,000 before the 2025 and 2029 games. The Old Gold & Black cannot confirm any further payments to Wake Forest at this time.

What it means for both schools

Meanwhile, on October 7th, Ole Miss Athletics announced that Washington State — the only other team currently in the PAC-12 alongside Oregon State — would take Wake Forest's spot on its 2025 football schedule.

““The opportunity to compete against the University of Mississippi, with its rich football history, will certainly be a great joy for our student-athletes, coaches and fans,” said Washington State University Athletics Director Anne McCoy.

Despite the inconvenience Wake Forest's breach of contract caused, it wasn't the first time
Mississippi home-and-home football series canceled.

Ahead of the start of the 2024 college football season, Mississippi and the University of Southern California (USC) mutually agreed to cancel their own trips in 2025 and 2026 to each other's schools. The two programs cited the possibility for Ole Miss to play another conference game and USC's efforts to join the Big Ten Conference to avoid having to play the game.

For now, after the nearly month-long Wake Forest-Mississippi divorce, both parties appear to have gone their separate ways and found more suitable opponents for 2025.

But as Wake Forest cashed out and avoided a rematch with Ole Miss, it revealed the concerns its athletics face as it strives to compete with other programs. Currie's statement points to the increasingly important role that finance could play in future decisions at Wake Forest and college sports in general.

“This will give us a significant edge business-wise, and I think that's important at this point in college athletics,” Clawson said.