Duke-Wake Forest Officially Cancelled
On the morning the game was originally scheduled to be played, the Wake Forest at Duke football game was officially cancelled by the ACC.
The game was called off for Saturday earlier in the week, due to an outbreak of COVID-19 on Wake Forest. The original announcement strongly hinted that the game wouldn’t be made up, as it used the phrase “will not be played” instead of “postponed.”
The ACC had looked into moving the game to the day of the ACC Championship Game, but Duke rejected that idea.
"The decision to forgo playing Wake Forest on December 19 was made with the health and safety of our players and staff as the priority,” coach David Cutcliffe said. "In this unique semester with ever-changing circumstances, notwithstanding the recent surge in positive COVID-19 cases nationally, we deemed it appropriate to adhere to our original timeline and allow the student-athletes to return home for the first time since mid-July following our game versus Florida State on December 5. To this point in the season, our players have been explicitly compliant, and continuing their isolated housing conditions without academic nor social settings for an additional two weeks would not be appropriate in this unsettling time. At Duke, we strive to provide an elite student-athlete experience and while this decision eliminates an opportunity for competition, we feel it is one with the best interests of every member of our program at the forefront."
The decision ends the fourth longest-played current series for Duke. This will be the first year that Duke-Wake Forest isn’t played since 1966. Only Duke’s series against Virginia (has played every year since 1963), Georgia Tech (scheduled for next week, has played every year since 1933) and North Carolina (every year since 1922) have been played longer.
