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Future Schedule

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DEACS76

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N Illinois has done it again. The 2 for 1 series we signed when Caldwell was the coach, started with two close games in 2001 and 2002. The third game has been moved so that the sons of those who played in the first two games can finally complete the series. It's been moved to Sept. 19th, 2026 leaving a spot to be filled by a likely FCS opponent.
 
How about a little better thread title that describes what's actually going on here.

https://fbschedules.com/2021-northern-illinois-wake-forest-football-game-pushed-back-2026/

The 2021 Northern Illinois at Wake Forest football game has been pushed back five seasons to 2026, FBSchedules.com has learned.

Northern Illinois and Wake Forest originally agreed to travel to take on Wake Forest at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Sept. 13, 2008. Then in 2006, the game was pushed back six seasons to Sept. 13, 2014.

About one year before the 2014 contest was to take place, Northern Illinois and Wake Forest mutually agreed to move the game again, this time to Sept. 18, 2021.

In July of 2018, the Northern Illinois-Wake Forest game was moved again, according to a copy of a letter obtained from Northern Illinois University via a state public records request.

The two schools will now meet at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem on Sept. 19, 2026. That is, unless the game is rescheduled again.

Northern Illinois and Wake Forest’s only two meetings on the gridiron were part of a home-and-home series in 2001 and 2002. Wake Forest won the first game 38-35 in Winston-Salem in 2001, and then NIU evened the series with a 42-41 victory in DeKalb the following season.

It’s likely that Northern Illinois requested the move, as they agreed to a game at Michigan that is set for the same date as the Wake Forest game was in 2021. NIU will receive a $1.5 million guarantee from Michigan, which is significantly more than the $170,000 they will get from Wake Forest (the original contract was agreed to in the early 2000’s).

Wake Forest is the first scheduled non-conference opponent for Northern Illinois in 2026.

The Demon Deacons have now tentatively completed their 2026 non-conference schedule with the addition of NIU. Other contests for Wake that season include Liberty at home (Sept. 5) and road games at Purdue (Sept. 12) and Army
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Of course NIU is going to be able to find another opponent for more than $170,000 in 2026. I look forward to a future lawsuit against NIU.
 
I’d prefer to avoid playing NIU because they are a legit program. IMO, we should schedule 4 “easy” non conference games so we only have to win 2 conference games to reach Bowl eligibility. I would much rather play 4 non conference cupcakes, and go to a Bowl Game.
 
BamaDeac said:
I’d prefer to avoid playing NIU because they are a legit program. IMO, we should schedule 4 “easy” non conference games so we only have to win 2 conference games to reach Bowl eligibility. I would much rather play 4 non conference cupcakes, and go to a Bowl Game.
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That's fine and can be debated all day. The problem is we're not going to find some cupcake who's going to come in for $170,000 and NIU is contractually obligated to play us for that sum.
 
Biff, How much will we paying Elon and VMI? We need a home game and whom ever we get, will cost us much more. The guys that played in the first two games are pushing 40 yrs old.
 
BamaDeac said:
I’d prefer to avoid playing NIU because they are a legit program. IMO, we should schedule 4 “easy” non conference games so we only have to win 2 conference games to reach Bowl eligibility. I would much rather play 4 non conference cupcakes, and go to a Bowl Game.
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Could not disagree more. Schedule should be balanced. Some of WF best moments have come against playing strong OOC teams: wins over UGA (road), Auburn, Ole Miss (road), Baylor (with RG3), Stanford (with Andrew Luck), Northwestern, Purdue, BC (when they were not in the ACC). Not saying every OOC game should be against Bama and tOSU, but one or two year makes sense.

With that said, I'm fine with dropping NIU. Really a no-win opponent.
 
when will Air Force back out of coming to Winston-Salem in 2023 and fulfilling their contract from the Caldwell era?
 
DEACS76 said:
Biff, How much will we paying Elon and VMI? We need a home game and whom ever we get, will cost us much more. The guys that played in the first two games are pushing 40 yrs old.
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I really don't know, but Georgia paid App State $1 million, Austin Peay $500,000, Arkansas State $1.8 million, and Middle Tennessee State $1.7 million. UMass got $1.5 million plus a home-and-home in basketball.

NC State paid JMU $425K last year.
 
Pilchard said:
Could not disagree more. Schedule should be balanced. Some of WF best moments have come against playing strong OOC teams: wins over UGA (road), Auburn, Ole Miss (road), Baylor (with RG3), Stanford (with Andrew Luck), Northwestern, Purdue, BC (when they were not in the ACC). Not saying every OOC game should be against Bama and tOSU, but one or two year makes sense.

With that said, I'm fine with dropping NIU. Really a no-win opponent.
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That's fine. They just need to give us the half million it will cost to schedule someone else.
 
Pilchard said:
Could not disagree more. Schedule should be balanced. Some of WF best moments have come against playing strong OOC teams: wins over UGA (road), Auburn, Ole Miss (road), Baylor (with RG3), Stanford (with Andrew Luck), Northwestern, Purdue, BC (when they were not in the ACC). Not saying every OOC game should be against Bama and tOSU, but one or two year makes sense.

With that said, I'm fine with dropping NIU. Really a no-win opponent.
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The spot is for a home game. We would have to give a 2 for 1 to a P5 school to fill it. It should be a regional opponent, so that the entire gate receipts won't go to the visiting team.
 
Pilchard said:
Could not disagree more. Schedule should be balanced. Some of WF best moments have come against playing strong OOC teams: wins over UGA (road), Auburn, Ole Miss (road), Baylor (with RG3), Stanford (with Andrew Luck), Northwestern, Purdue, BC (when they were not in the ACC). Not saying every OOC game should be against Bama and tOSU, but one or two year makes sense.

With that said, I'm fine with dropping NIU. Really a no-win opponent.
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Last Season we were “forced” to play ND as 4th Non Conference game and lost. As a result, we had to win our final regular season game to become Bowl Eligible; as well as, pull off the major upset late in the season at NCSU. Had we played a “cupcake” team instead of ND having to beat Duke in last game of season could have been avoided.

In the past playing against a team from a Power Conference and losing has cost Wake Bowl Eligiblty multiple times:
2012 5-7 (lost to ND and Vandy)
2009 5-7 (lost to Baylor and Navy)
2005 4-7 (lost to Vandy and Nebraska)
2003 5-7 (lost to Purdue and UConn)


So would you rather have a much better chance at playing in a Bowl Game, or play a regular season game against a good program from the Power 5? IMO, going to a Bowl Game on a regular basis provides the Program with more exposure as having a “Winning Program”, which leads to more respect. As a result, it’s easier to recruit more talented players and sustain success. Also, the coaches constantly state one of the most important parts of going to a Bowl Game are the extra practices.
 
In non-ND years, I’d prefer this: one FCS, one in state FBS (Unc non conference, ECU, or App), one random probable win, and then establishing a regular rivalry with one or more similar (private southern) schools. Vandy is the obvious choice, but Tulane works ok. That’s a lot more interesting to me than Utah State.
 
wakelaw13 said:
In non-ND years, I’d prefer this: one FCS, one in state FBS (Unc non conference, ECU, or App), one random probable win, and then establishing a regular rivalry with one or more similar (private southern) schools. Vandy is the obvious choice, but Tulane works ok. That’s a lot more interesting to me than Utah State.
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I’d rather have a random home and home with a different P5 team every two years than trying to force a rivalry with a peer school. The vandy series was fun for a couple years then got boring. Keep things interesting and find some lower tier power conference teams to play.
 
BamaDeac said:
Last Season we were “forced” to play ND as 4th Non Conference game and lost. As a result, we had to win our final regular season game to become Bowl Eligible; as well as, pull off the major upset late in the season at NCSU. Had we played a “cupcake” team instead of ND having to beat Duke in last game of season could have been avoided.

In the past playing against a team from a Power Conference and losing has cost Wake Bowl Eligiblty multiple times:
2012 5-7 (lost to ND and Vandy)
2009 5-7 (lost to Baylor and Navy)
2005 4-7 (lost to Vandy and Nebraska)
2003 5-7 (lost to Purdue and UConn)


So would you rather have a much better chance at playing in a Bowl Game, or play a regular season game against a good program from the Power 5? IMO, going to a Bowl Game on a regular basis provides the Program with more exposure as having a “Winning Program”, which leads to more respect. As a result, it’s easier to recruit more talented players and sustain success. Also, the coaches constantly state one of the most important parts of going to a Bowl Game are the extra practices.
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Playing ND gives us more exposure than almost any bowl game. And it gives us a chance of beating ND to establish us as a Winning Program.

You can say the same for several other P5 teams. There’s no guarantee we will play a P5 in a bowl game.
 
$170K is pretty pitiful. I expect that Biff is right - NIU will just cut us a check for that amount after their game with Michigan and wish us luck finding a replacement.
 
PhDeac said:
Playing ND gives us more exposure than almost any bowl game. And it gives us a chance of beating ND to establish us as a Winning Program.

You can say the same for several other P5 teams. There’s no guarantee we will play a P5 in a bowl game.
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I wouldn't say it gives us more exposure. Playing ND during the regular season, while it is a big game, is also one of many games that are being played at the same time. The majority of bowl games are the only game on TV in their time slot, and many of them are during the holidays when people have more free time to watch a game.
 
LilburnDeac said:
I wouldn't say it gives us more exposure. Playing ND during the regular season, while it is a big game, is also one of many games that are being played at the same time. The majority of bowl games are the only game on TV in their time slot, and many of them are during the holidays when people have more free time to watch a game.
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Fair argument. Our bowl game and the ND game both drew around 2.5M viewers.
 
PhDeac said:
Playing ND gives us more exposure than almost any bowl game. And it gives us a chance of beating ND to establish us as a Winning Program.

You can say the same for several other P5 teams. There’s no guarantee we will play a P5 in a bowl game.
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Winning 1 game against ND, Clemson, Bama doesn’t immediately establish Wake as a “Winning Program”, most people besides WFU fans will forget about it within a few weeks. However, winning/going to 3 straight Bowl Games provides consistentcy that builds respect on the national stage. Also, I’m not concerned about playing a P5 team in a Bowl Game. IMO, it is more about getting to a Bowl Game every season rather than who we play in the Bowl Game.

In football, Wake should be compared to Northwestern and Vandy. Under Fitzgerald, Northwestern has been a Top 40 Program over the past 5 seasons including finishing the season ranked in Top 25 4 out of last 7 seasons, and has gone to 10 Bowl Games in 13 seasons. Since 2011 Vandy has gone to 5 Bowl games (3 under Franklin and 2 under Mason), and finished the season ranked in the Top 25 twice.

My point is that similar colleges like Wake have proven that the with the right coach you can build a Top 40 Program. Once Wake becomes a Top 40 Program, then start playing one “Big” non conference game a season. Crawl, Walk, Run
 
Agree. We need to establish regular bowl appearances and wins as baselines before doing anything else. I’ve never understood Wake fans not wanting bowl appearances when they’ve been so utterly rare in our history. I realize they’re more watered down now, but even so, they’re valuable.

Today I sent Clawson’s football camp link to the parents of a couple of guys I hope could end up on Wake’s radar. The website was touting the 3 straight bowl wins as an easily identifiable marker of success.
 
I like our idea of 1 FCS, 2 G6, 1 P5 that we have for the next 10 years. Playing Purdue and Ole Miss again is great. We have beaten them both before. Playing ODU and ECU adds regional interest. As for ND, 2011 was the only game we had a real chance.
 
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