Wake Forest made a lot of news over the weekend and none of it was the good kind. First, there was the 40-6 loss at home to Ole Miss. And then there was Lane Kiffin telling the media that Wake had just committed $1 million to buy its way out of the game in Oxford, Mississippi next year. And now Wake is going to Corvallis, Oregon instead? But where is the truth with Wake Forest, Ole Miss, and Oregon State?
The Story Gets Out the Wrong Way
Kiffin being who he is, could not wait to tell the media in his post-game press conference that Wake had committed seven figures to get out of playing his Rebels at Ole Miss next year. He even went so far as to say that when he found out late in the week, he and his players used it as motivation in the route over Wake Saturday night.
Putting aside for the moment that with the talent disparity being what it is, Ole Miss probably would have had its way with Wake Forest one way or the other. The extra motivation was just a dose of Lane.
Wake Forest athletic director John Currie has taken a PR beating for the last few days. He was silent on the buyout and silent on what was coming next. Then late Wednesday morning, Wake issued a statement saying the school had signed a home-and-home agreement with Oregon State.
Currie’s statement on the switch did not allay any issues fans had with dropping a marquee game like Ole Miss and paying huge sums of money to do it.
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
The idea of worrying about financial pressures and paying Ole Miss that kind of money comes off as missing the mark.
The Kiffin Version and the Real Version
But Last Word has been in conversation with sources close to the Wake Forest athletic department, as well as old Pac-12 sources in the Pacific Northwest. Here is what we know and can confirm.
The buyout for the Ole Miss game in Oxford was nowhere near $1 million. Our sources did not want to give us an exact amount but more than $500k and less than $1 million was the general direction. So let’s split the difference and call it $750k. The million-dollar figure was more “Kiffin-esque,” (our words, not theirs).
When the contract was signed in 2014, it was not customary for schools to share/split/offset travel expenses. We were told by our sources that, as such, there were no such accommodations in the Ole Miss home and home agreement.
That’s a non-issue for a school like Ole Miss. In case you haven’t noticed, the Rebels travel on the road in their owned and operated plane. Hotel and food for 48 hours and your expenses are done. While there are no hotel/resort chains tied to Ole Miss sponsorships, certainly The Grove Collective, one of the wealthiest collective groups in the SEC, could provide “assistance” with the Ole Miss travel needs. That is a luxury Wake Forest does not have.
Based on other regionally traveled games, the expense of the team going to Ole Miss could likely be in the $200k-$250k range. While the school got a financial windfall with a near-sellout crowd at Allegacy Stadium last weekend, spending the money to go back to Ole Miss was something Currie was apparently reluctant to do.
Currie’s Silence
Last Word has confirmed that Ole Miss was given notice on Tuesday of last week as to Wake Forest’s intention to cancel. It was not known publicly until Kiffin’s utterances Saturday night.
Wake had been working on the deal with Oregon State well before canceling on Ole Miss. But Tuesday was the deadline to notify Ole Miss before the buyout fee really would have climbed well into the seven-figure range.
The contracts were signed at 7 am Pacific Coast time on Wednesday, per our Oregon State sources. It was only then that Currie made the announcement.
Currie could not have been specific about who or what was going to replace Ole Miss. But even the vaguest of statements indicating that Wake was going to replace Ole Miss with another FBS school would have gone a long way to cut through the morass of the last five days. Letting Lane Kiffin break your news for you and then sitting in silence until the formalities were complete is a PR 101 misstep of large proportions.
The Beavers
Oregon State and Washington State have been calling everyone who would pick up the phone trying to get more football games. They were the two left at the altar when the Pac-12 imploded. They have a two-year working agreement with the Mountain West to provide “some games.” But the rest is up to them. Technically the only conference game they have is with each other.
Last week, Pac commissioner Teresa Gould pillaged the MWC for four schools beginning in 2026. It was sort of a planned pillage, as there was verbiage in the joint agreement as to any buyouts that could happen if the Pac took any MWC schools.
Per our sources tied to the Oregon State athletic department, the money afforded to Wake Forest in the agreement is more than enough to pay the exit fee for Ole Miss. With the game expense offsets and financial guarantees, that would make this contract better than the Ole Miss version.
One thing Oregon State has is a lot of financial resources to get through the difficult times. In 2023, OSU and Washington State sued the departing 10 Pac schools for control of the conference’s revenue and finances. Since the other schools were leaving, OSU and WAZZU argued that they should have no say in how the 2022-23 academic year revenue was allocated.
OSU’s Money
The two sides reached a binding agreement to split the approximately $400 million in revenue. The departing 10 would split $200 million and the remaining two would split the other $200 million. So Oregon State has roughly $100 million in financial flexibility to make the type of arrangements it did with Wake Forest. The Beavers can cover items like expenses in exchange for playing a school from a Power Four conference.
Oregon State’s 2025 football schedule currently has seven games scheduled, including Wake Forest. Most of the games are against regionally based teams, like Oregon, Cal, Washington State, and Fresno State. The farthest opponents, before the Wake Forest agreement, are a home game against Houston and a road game at Texas Tech.
OSU’s return game, the one scheduled for Winston-Salem, has not been officially scheduled. The official statement from Wake Forest said it will be 2029, “Or earlier.” Our Oregon State sources said they believe it will be earlier than that. But they said the school needs to see how the newly rebuilt Pac conference pans out and what it does to future conference schedules before knowing when they will travel to Wake.
This will be the first time ever that Oregon State plays a team from the current ACC roster of schools in a regular season game.
