Wake Forest has its 2026-27 non-conference schedule in hand, and the first impression is pretty clear: the Deacs are not exactly loading up Joel Coliseum with marquee dates before ACC play arrives.
The full slate is out, and while the Battle 4 Atlantis will give the schedule at least a little bite, the overall non-conference picture is light on heavy hitters. Right now, Wake Forest has just one opponent that reached the NCAA Tournament last season - Vanderbilt - and only three teams on the schedule finished 2026 with a winning record: Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Monmouth.
That makes the home portion stand out for the wrong reasons. October and November don’t look like they’ll bring many must-see nights in Winston-Salem, because the Joel schedule is extremely soft. Last season, Wake’s home non-conference slate averaged just over 10 wins and carried an average Kenpom/NET ranking of 268th, and every non-conference team Wake will host next season would have been a Quad 4 game a year ago.
The numbers get even starker when you look at the records. Wake will face more teams that finished last season with single-digit win totals - three - than teams that finished above .500 - just one. Maryland Eastern Shore, which went 7-23 and ranked 350th, and Gardner Webb, which finished 2-28 and ranked 361st, were among the worst teams in Division I last year.
So if the Deacs want this schedule to help rather than hurt, there’s not much room for error. They’ll need to win these games convincingly, because anything less could leave them chasing the metrics from the jump.
In Other News...
Wake Forest Nonconference Slate Puts Early Pressure On A New-Look Roster
Wake Forests 2026-27 nonconference basketball schedule gives the new-look roster a little bit of everything: a heavy dose of home dates, a pair of true road tests and four games at a neutral site. The Deacons will have plenty of chances to settle in at home, but the slate also includes the kind of early measuring sticks that can quickly show how far along this group is once the season starts.
The toughest of those swings comes away from Winston-Salem, with trips to Vanderbilt and LSU helping define the first month of the year. Add in a Thanksgiving run through the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, and Wake Forests opening stretch looks built to offer both confidence and consequences, the sort of schedule that can build momentum if things go well or expose growing pains before league play begins. [Read more 🡒]