Wake Forest couldn’t be more ready for these ACC rumors

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons have surely heard these recent ACC rumors, but they shouldn’t be sweating them at all.

The timeline of Wake Forest Athletics is one of rather limited excellence. Its football program has the lowest all-time winning percentage in the Power 5, its basketball program has only made the Final Four once, and the university has been widely regarded as a “golfing school.”

In other words, the Demon Deacons are not exactly the first group to come to mind when thinking of a powerhouse in the world of collegiate sports. And that isn’t exactly a comforting realization for them to face when hearing some of the latest rumors surrounding the ACC.

The Atlantic Coast Conference (of which Wake Forest is a charter member) has recently been the subject of some speculations involving these ongoing conference realignments. One of the said speculations has actually gone as far as to discuss four of its powers, including Florida State and Clemson, potentially joining the SEC.

Now rumors such as the one mentioned above are just that: rumors, and nothing more. With that said, none of them should be taken even remotely seriously when considering where the Power 5 leagues officially stand today.

However, as the discussions heat up on social media, one can’t help but think about what they could mean for other ACC members. When it comes to Wake Forest, the Deacs must be concerned about their lackluster past hindering the quality of their future, right? Wrong.

If the Atlantic Coast Conference were to ever dissolve, now would be one of the best possible times for it to happen as far as the current states of Wake’s athletic programs are concerned.

We’ve already covered the historical mediocrity of some of their larger sports brands, but to look at how said brands sit today would tell an entirely different story.

Sure, Demon Deacons football is not infamous for being bad, it’s infamous for being terrible. But despite that, last year’s team managed to win its division and make what was only the program’s second ACC title game ever.

Since then, their basketball team has had both the ACC Player of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year, and their baseball team has made the College Park Regional–their third time making the NCAA Tournament in the last seven years.

Beyond that, the men’s tennis team just won its first title back in 2018, and the school has several more national championships under its belt on behalf of both the men’s golf and women’s field hockey teams.

The takeaway here is that Wake Forest already had past success in smaller, less-marketable sports, but it’s combining that with present success in more popular ones that places them in a rather attractive light for when people are eyeballing athletic universities.

If a time does come—and soon—where the ACC is losing structure and the Demon Deacons are looking to lock down some greener pastures, they will now be able to say with confidence that at least one other major conference out there will be interested in giving them a new home.