Wake Forest gets Wisconsin football in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl

It’s Charlotte after all.

Wake Forest football is headed to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to play Wisconsin, the newly named bowl announced Sunday.

It’s the fifth straight bowl berth for Wake Forest, extending a program record that was three before this stretch. If Demon Deacons win the Dec. 30 bowl, it’ll notch the fifth straight winning season – matching a program record from 1944-48.

Wake Forest was scheduled to play Notre Dame in Charlotte this season in the Duke’s Mayo Kickoff Classic, but that game was ultimately canceled due to coronavirus protocols. It was first pushed back from a September date, then moved to Wake Forest’s Truist Field, and then canceled from its Dec. 12 date.

It’ll be Wake Forest’s third appearance in Charlotte’s Bowl game – all of which have been under a different name and, so far, all of which have been wins for the Deacs. In 2007, the Demon Deacons beat Connecticut 24-10 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl; in 2017, they beat Texas A&M 55-52 in the Belk Bowl.

This abnormal, unique season that’s been unlike any other, though, will see Wake Forest close out its odyssey of a season in the same state it started.

The Demon Deacons have played one game since Nov. 14, a 45-21 loss at Louisville last week.

Wake Forest’s game scheduled for this past Saturday against Florida State was called off because of a positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing and quarantining within the Seminoles’ program.

“We’re here, we’re committed to seeing this thing through,” coach Dave Clawson said Friday night after the program’s impromptu virtual Senior Night. “… We’ve stuck together this long, we’re going to see this thing through and however it ends, it ends.

“But, incredibly proud of the resilience and there wasn’t one player or one person that said, ‘Geez, we shouldn’t go play in the bowl now.’ Never came up. At least not publicly. Our older guys want to play.”

Wake Forest played the fewest games in the ACC this season, going 4-4 overall and 3-4 in the league.

Wisconsin is 3-3, all Big Ten games. The Badgers scored 94 points in their first two games, both wins, and climbed to No. 9 in the AP poll before a three-game losing streak.

Wake Forest and Wisconsin have never played in football.

Wake Forest vs. Wisconsin: Duke’s Mayo Bowl

When: Noon, Dec. 30

Where: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte

Watch: ESPN