The Deacs have released the full non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season, and if you were hoping for some exciting home games before conference play starts, you are probably out of luck.
Here’s a quick rundown of the schedule since the graphic above only has logos:
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Nov. 2: Maryland Eastern Shore
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Nov. 10: Charleston Southern
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Nov. 25 : Battle 4 Atlantis
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Nov. 27: Battle 4 Atlantis
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Dec. 1: at LSU (ACC-SEC Challenge)
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Dec. 6: UMass (Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass)
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Dec. 19: West Virginia (Greensboro)
If the goal of this schedule was to make the win total look as good as possible at the end of the season, mission accomplished. The Battle 4 Atlantis will add a little strength to the schedule, but the Deacs currently have 1 team that made the NCAA Tournament last season (Vanderbilt) and just 3 teams that finished 2026 with a winning record (Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Monmouth) on the non-conference slate.
As far as the home schedule goes, October and November are not looking like they are going to make for exciting times in the Joel Coliseum, as this is just an incredibly weak home schedule. In the 2025-26 season, the home slate finished with an average of just over 10 wins and an average Kenpom/NET of 268th—every non-conference team Wake will play in the Joel next season would have been a Q4 game last season. The Deacs will play more teams that finished with a single digit win total last season (3) than finished with a winning record (1). Maryland Eastern Shore (350th, 7-23) and Gardner Webb (361, 2-28) were two of the worst teams in all of Division I last season. Wake is either going to have to win all of these games by 40 points or hope that a few of these teams improved drastically in the offseason, elsewise they will probably start the season way behind in the metrics.
