TCU pausing Iron Skillet series with SMU after 2025 season, per source: What it means for the future

April 10, 2024

The Battle for the Iron Skillet won’t be sizzling for a while, as TCU is pausing the rivalry series with SMU following the 2025 season, a source briefed on the situation confirmed to The Athletic. Action Network first reported this news. Here’s what you need to know:

This year will mark the 102nd Iron Skillet matchup. TCU will host this season’s game in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 23.
The schools are 35 miles apart and have played since 1915; TCU leads the series 52-42-7. SMU is scheduled to host TCU in the 2024 matchup in Dallas.
There are no known details on when the pause in the series will end.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Is this a surprise?

The future of this series has come up recently. SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said at a recent Texas high school coaches convention that the Mustangs would always be willing to play that game, but TCU coach (and former SMU coach) Sonny Dykes said the Frogs would have to consider what scheduling means for season ticket holders and College Football Playoff hopes in a 12-team era.

“When you transition from a four-team playoff to a 12-team playoff in my opinion, that changes your scheduling dynamic,’ Dykes said, according to On3. “(Last) year, TCU we won two non-conference road games. (Last) year, with Nick Saban going to Austin and beating Texas, Nick Saban won his second non-conference road game as the head coach at Alabama. Let that sink in for a second.” — Vannini

What does this mean for the future?

On a personal level, I hate to see this rivalry going away, especially as it has just gotten hot again with some SMU wins, a scuffle at the end of the 2021 game and then Dykes flipping sides by going to TCU. It’s a great rivalry for the Dallas-Fort Worth battle and it’s one of the few remaining inter-conference remnants of the Southwest Conference. For SMU, it was a game that would always bring a big crowd at home.

TCU has future nonconference games with the likes of Stanford, North Carolina and Duke in the coming years. While the Frogs have typically taken a P5/G5/FCS approach to nonconference scheduling, perhaps this opens the possibility for more Power 5 series, as the 12-team playoff era allows you to take a loss or two. We’ve seen schools like Texas, Alabama and Georgia begin to schedule bigger nonconference games. If TCU simply replaces SMU with other Group of 5 schools, that would be unfortunate.

Either way, the end of this rivalry is one we can’t blame on conference realignment. — Vannini

Backstory

TCU beat SMU 42-34 in last year’s meeting after the Mustangs won the previous two matchups. Prior to that, the Horned Frogs boasted a seven-year win streak from 2012 to 2018.

The two teams shared a conference rivalry from 1923 to 2000 in both the Southwest Conference and the Western Athletic Conference. TCU exited the WAC for Conference USA in 2001, but the rivalry was still cooking. The Horned Frogs later joined the Mountain West Conference before moving to their current conference, the Big 12. The Mustangs play in the American Athletic Conference.

What they’re saying

Dallas mayor Eric L. Johnson voiced his displeasure with the decision in a social media post, tagging Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker.

“This is the greatest college football rivalry in North Texas,” Johnson wrote. “But this is about more than football — this is about Dallas vs FW, Hatfields vs McCoys, good vs evil, the Force vs the Dark Side — @MayorMattie put a stop to this!”

Required reading

(Photo: Matthew Visinsky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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