Vanderbilt, Wake Forest schedule home-and-home series for 2025, 2026

We’ve seen some teams in the SEC and ACC schedule upcoming series against one another, whether home-and-homes or at neutral sites, outside of the next edition of the ACC-SEC Challenge. Vanderbilt and Wake Forest are now the latest to reportedly do so.

Per separate releases by the two programs on Monday, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest will be playing a home-and-home versus each other the next two seasons. The Commodores will go to Winston-Salem this season on December 21st with the Demon Deacons set to come back to Nashville in 2026.

Vanderbilt and Wake Forest have played each other twice all-time with a tie at 2-2. Two were part of a separate home-and-home in 2006, an 88-78 win for the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem and 2007, an 83-80 win for the Commodores in Nashville, while their first of the four was a matchup in the opening of the NIT in 2000, which was an 83-68 road win for Wake Forest in Music City. Their most recent matchup was then an 86-64 win for Vandy in the 2015 Maui Invitational.

Vanderbilt will be entering year two under Mark Byington after going 20-13 (.606), having one of their better seasons in recent history, and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. However, the Commodores will have an all-new team from that one, losing double-digit players, including eight transfers out, but while bringing in eleven, eight of those additions making up what is a Top-10 portal class.

Wake Forest will then be entering their sixth year under Steve Forbes. They had one of the best records of his tenure last season at 21-11 (.656), bringing his overall record there to 92-65 (.586), but yet against missed on March Madness for the eighth straight season. The Demon Deacons will then be in a similar transition with their roster, losing nearly double-digit names to the portal or being out eligibility while bringing in six with five being commitments to a Top-30 portal class.

As for their respective schedules, this is, again, another matchup for each of them against the other’s conference. That’s with each of them hosting games as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge in 2025 as Vanderbilt will play SMU and Wake Forest will play Oklahoma. Then, of what else has been in official announcements for their schedules, both teams will play in separate events in the Bahamas late in November with the Commodores being in in the Battle 4 Atlantis while the Demon Deacons will play Texas Tech and one of Memphis or Purdue as part of the Baha Mar Championship. All of their conference opponents in the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference have also been announced.