FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU coach Sonny Dykes grew up around Southwest Conference football as the son of a coach. As a head coach himself, he has won on both sides in the rivalry between the Horned Frogs and SMU that, at least for now, is about to end after 104 games played over 110 years.
Arkansas-born Rhett Lashlee, who took over at SMU after Dykes moved 40 miles across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex at the end of the 2021 season, fondly remembers as a kid when the Razorbacks were in the Southwest Conference with eight teams from Texas.
In the 30 years since the SWC’s final season, no teams from that league have met more as nonconference opponents than TCU (2-0) and SMU (2-1), who play Saturday. Since going separate ways after five years together in the WAC, this will be the 23rd “Battle for the Iron Skillet” in a span when the only years not meeting were 2006 and the coronavirus-impacted 2020 season.
“They’ve chosen not to play anymore,” Lashlee said. “We’ll see what the future holds. But we’re playing this Saturday.”
Power schedules
Things changed when SMU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference last year to become part of a major conference for the first time since the end of the SWC. Neither SMU nor TCU was among the four Texas schools that joined with the Big Eight Conference teams to form the Big 12, but the Frogs went to the league in 2012.
The Big 12 plays a nine-game conference schedule, and TCU already has nonconference games scheduled against other Power Four teams each season through at least 2030. So does SMU.
“We’re scheduled out, because that’s what you do,” Dykes said. “The situation changed, and then it didn’t make a lot of sense to play these games. ... It’s a pretty simple equation, and a pretty simple solution.”
TCU and Baylor, which won 48-45 in double overtime at SMU on Sept. 6 in their first meeting of those former SWC rivals since 2016, are the only FBS teams playing 11 Power Four opponents this year. That is because their games against the Mustangs were scheduled before SMU's move from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC. Baylor will host them next year, with no more meetings scheduled after that.
Script flipped a bit
SMU has won three of the past five games against the Frogs, after losing 17 of 19 before that. When the Mustangs won in 2019 and 2021 with Dykes on their side, it was the first time since 1992-93 — before their NCAA death penalty — with back-to-back wins in the series. TCU won in 2022 and 2023 after Dykes switched sides, but SMU won 66-42 at home last year, when Dykes was ejected after two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at the start of the second half.
Pony Express
Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson, who with Craig James made up the famed “Pony Express” backfield from 1979-82, wasn't aware until recently that this was the last scheduled meeting.
“They said they wanted more home games, but they didn't want another game they had a really good chance of losing is what the deal was,” James explained to Dickerson.
“When you can beat up a team, you want to play them all the time,” Dickerson responded.
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Dickerson said the hardest hit he ever took was as a freshman from a blitzing TCU defensive back. Dickerson went to the sideline and then didn't remember walking to the locker room. The Mustangs won that game, and were 4-0 with the “Pony Express” during a string of 15 consecutive wins in the series.
“All I know is they’re right down the street, they had that ugly mascot, that ugly frog, and I used to love beating up on them,” Dickerson said. “We had some tough games.”
Where are they now?
Arkansas left for the Southeastern Conference in 1992, and the eight Texas schools that played the final SWC season in 1995 are now spread out among four different leagues.
Baylor and Texas Tech are still in what is now a 16-team Big 12. Texas A&M departed for the SEC in 2012 and Texas joined the Aggies there last year after they didn't play during those 12 seasons when not in the same league. Houston played in multiple leagues before joining the Big 12 in 2023. Only Rice in the American Conference isn’t among the Power Four.
After SMU-Baylor next year, Texas Tech and Arkansas are scheduled to play three times, a 2030 game in Las Vegas before campus games in 2031 and 2034.
“It's just the ebb and flow of the way this stuff works in college football, because there’s a lot of uncertainty and that’s just really kind of how it is,” Dykes said. “If we're in the same conference as SMU, we'd play every year, and there was a long time that they were.”
Meaningful wins
Lashlee was on Dykes' staff at SMU for the win over TCU in 2019, part of the Mustangs' first 10-win season in 35 years.
The Frogs won in 2022 during an undefeated regular season in Dykes' debut that ended in the national championship game.
The Mustangs won last year before a regular-season title in their ACC debut and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
“It's kind of an interesting spot as we're both leaving nonconference and going into conference,” Lashlee said. “In ‘19, it springboarded us to a 10-win season. ... Last year obviously it really helped springboard us again. So it can be a swing game.”
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