“Wake Forest to cover fee for Ole Miss canceled game with OSU deal.”

Wake Forest made the trip to No. 9 Ole Miss canceled next year to make room for a home-and-home football series against Oregon State. It turns out that according to the scheduling agreements, the Beavers are essentially covering what the Demon Deacons owe for Ole Miss' cancellation.

Ole Miss and Oregon State both recently submitted their respective contracts with the North Carolina-based private institution in response to a public records request from The Associated Press.

The first agreement, originally signed in 2014 for a home-and-home series, calls for Wake Forest to pay Ole Miss $750,000 if the game is more than 12 months but less than 24 months away game is cancelled. This represents the payment Oregon State will make to Wake Forest to secure a home game in October 2025 and the return trip in September 2029.

Additionally, the second agreement — signed Sept. 17, a week after Wake Forest notified Ole Miss of the cancellation — calls for each school to pay the visitor $100,000. There was no such provision in the Ole Miss-Wake Forest agreement.

The cancellation drew the ire of Rebels coach Lane Kiffin, who said Wake Forest had broken “an unwritten rule” by buying its way out of next year's game and forcing Ole Miss to find another major conference opponent . At the time, Wake Forest athletic director John Currie noted the “ongoing financial pressures” in college sports and called the trade “the right business decision” in a statement.

In this regard, Wake Forest replaced one game with two and covered the costs with the new agreement, which provided additional funds that could be used for travel expenses. Additionally, Currie notified Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter via letter and email on September 10, days before the cancellation fee would rise to $1 million, as the cancellation occurred less than a year before the scheduled return trip to Oxford , Mississippi, on September 13, 2025.

The contract provides for any termination payment by February 15th for the year following the game in question. That would occur in 2026, although Currie informed Carter that Wake Forest would be open to an earlier payment plan, according to a copy of the termination letter included in the released documents.

Kiffin broke the news of the cancellation in his postgame press conference after the Rebels defeated the Demon Deacons 40-6 in Winston-Salem on Sept. 14. Two days later he was still angry about it and said: “We obviously didn't like it very much that they put us in this situation.”

Wake Forest is a member of the ACC, Ole Miss is a member of the SEC and Oregon State is a holdover in the rebuilding Pac-12.