Wake Forest will welcome NC State, Duke and UNC to Joel Coliseum this basketball season

It will seem like old times this basketball season at Joel Coliseum because all three of Wake Forest's in-state ACC rivals will pay visits.

The ACC released the conference opponents for each school this week, and the Demon Deacons will play nine conference games at Joel Coliseum. NC State, North Carolina and Duke will be coming to Winston-Salem.

Wake Forest will play NC State, Notre Dame, Boston College, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt and Virginia Tech at home. Its road game are at NC State, Notre Dame, Cal, Clemson, Louisville, Miami, SMU, Stanford and Syracuse.

Last season, the ACC returned to an 18-game conference schedule after previously running a 20-game model from 2019-20 to 2024-25. The 18-game schedule features teams starting league play in late December and ending on the first Saturday of March.

Now, each team will play one primary partner both home and away as well as one variable partner home and away.

While Wake Forest didn't play North Carolina or Duke in Winston-Salem last season, the oddity in the schedule this season is that North Carolina will not play at NC State. The two rival schools will only play once in Chapel Hill. That last time North Carolina didn't play in Raleigh was the 1946-47 season.

Wake Forest's primary partner is NC State while this year's variable partner is Notre Dame. The Demon Deacons will not face Virginia during this upcoming regular season.

Coach Steve Forbes is entering his seventh season in Winston-Salem.

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