A Way-Too-Early Look at Wake Forest's Bowl Possibilities

The college football season hasn’t even started yet — heck, fall camp hasn’t even commenced — yet it’s never too early to try to project where the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will be playing postseason football. Call it a preseason look ahead into what could happen in the postseason. There’s got to be a catchier name than that, right?

Anyway, Wake Forest kicked off the Jake Dickert era with a successful 2025 campaign that saw it ultimately go on to win the Duke’s Mayo Bowl over Mississippi State. As the mayonnaise cascaded over Dickert following the victory, Demon Deacons fans couldn’t help but wonder, "What’s next?"

With the ACC announcing its bowl schedule a couple of weeks ago, that picture has become a bit clearer. While it’s hard to forecast just how good Wake Forest will be in 2026, it’s reasonable to expect the team to build on the success of last season and continue making runs to the postseason.

Don’t get it twisted: The Demon Deacons are most likely not going to make the College Football Playoff. That’s obviously the ultimate goal of the program, though it’s quite unrealistic at this stage. There are still plenty of bowl games to be excited about, however, so let’s look at where Wake Forest could be playing its postseason football once everything is said and done.

The Gimmicks Are Always the Most Fun

It doesn’t get more "college football" than when a coach is doused with mayonnaise following a win. Or when a Pop-Tart is ceremoniously toasted at midfield after two teams battle it out for 60 minutes.

The Duke’s Mayo Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl are fantastic events that any team would be lucky to compete in. Luckily for Wake Forest, the chances of it being one of the lucky few that gets that opportunity are quite high — so long as the Deacs go out and take care of business in Dickert’s second year at the helm.

There are few things that college football fans can agree on. One of those few things is that the next best thing to making the College Football Playoff is playing in front of three Pop-Tarts mascots that want nothing more than to be sacrificed to the frosted gods.

Historic Ballparks Make for Wonky Football Games

Fenway Bowl in 202 — Dec 27, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; A general view of dusk at Fenway Park during the second half of the Wasabi Fenway Bowl between the Army Black Knights and the UConn Huskies. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-Imagn Images | Danny Wild-Imagn Images

If those two don’t get you going, how about the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium or the Wasabi Fenway Bowl at Fenway Park? It should. Because there’s nothing more American than playing a game on a rectangular field on a surface that is anything but a rectangle.

It’s very odd to see football games played on baseball fields, but Wake Forest could see itself in that exact situation at the end of the season. These two bowls are very much in play, probably more so than the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl. So if you’re at all interested in New York or Boston in the dead of winter, then this is welcome news for you.

Plenty of Other Possibilities Are on the Table

Other bowl games with ACC affiliations — excluding the College Football Playoff — are the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Freedom Mortgage Military Bowl, JLab Birmingham Bowl, Valero Alamo Bowl, TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, SERVPRO First Responders Bowl, and the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl.

What a lineup!

It’s hard to know where Wake Forest is going to go when zero games have been played. In a lot of ways, this is the least of the worries of the coaching staff, players, and probably the fans. What’s important right now is preparing for the season opener against Akron on Sept. 3. Let’s start there and then see where the journey takes us.

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