Wake Forest's fee for canceling football game vs. Ole Miss is covered by new Oregon State deal

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

Ole Miss and Oregon State both recently provided 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, requires Wake Forest to pay $750,000 to Ole Miss for canceling more than 12 months but less than 24 months ahead of the upcoming game. That matches the payment Oregon State will make to Wake Forest to secure a home football 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 — also has each school pay the visitor $100,000. There was no such provision in the Mississippi-Wake Forest agreement.

The cancellation drew the ire of Rebels coach Lane Kiffin, who said that Wake Forest violated “an unwritten rule” by buying its way out of next year's game and force Ole Miss to search another major-conference opponent. At the time, Wake Forest athletics director John Currie pointed to “ongoing financial pressures” in college sports and called the swap “the right business decision" in a statement.

In that regard, Wake Forest replaced one game for two and covered the cost with the new agreement that included additional funds that could be used for travel expenses. Additionally, Currie notified Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter by letter and email Sept. 10, days before the cancellation fee would increase to $1 million by coming less than a year before the scheduled Sept. 13, 2025 return trip to Oxford, Mississippi.

The contract has any cancellation payment due by Feb. 15 for the year following the impacted game. That would come in 2026, though Currie notified Carter that Wake Forest is open to an earlier payment schedule, according to a copy of the cancellation letter included in the released documents.

Kiffin broke the news of the cancellation in his postgame news conference after the Rebels beat the Demon Deacons 40-6 on Sept. 14 in Winston-Salem. He was still irritated about it two days later, saying: "It obviously wasn’t appreciated very much, them putting us in that situation.”

Wake Forest is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Ole Miss is a member of the Southeastern Conference and Oregon State is a holdover in the rebuilding Pac-12.