SMU and TCU have been linked at the hip since the Mustangs launched a college football program.
SMU’s first game ever was against the Frogs, a 43-0 loss in 1915 at Y.M.C.A Athletic Park in Fort Worth. In 1918, the Mustangs picked up their first victory — by forfeit — because the TCU team bus got stuck in the mud after heavy rain in Grand Prairie, Texas. Their first on-field victory followed in 1923.
On Saturday, the rivalry joins that fateful bus in the mud, closing the door on a matchup that has been played 103 times. The teams have played all but four seasons in the past century, three of which were canceled by either the pandemic or SMU’s infamous Death Penalty. This time, the pause of the Iron Skillet will be voluntary.
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After many conversations, TCU has decided not to renew the annual home-and-home series with SMU. Athletic department officials indicated that the focus will be on getting more home games and balancing the schedule instead of prioritizing the nonconference rivalry game.
“There’s probably, I don’t know, a couple dozen rivalries in the country that have been played 100 times?” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “This is one of them. So I think it’s important. It’s two good programs. I know our program’s on the rise and it’s why you want to play the game. They’ve chosen not to play anymore, and we’ll see what the future holds.”
TCU coach Sonny Dykes coached at SMU and helped lead the program to its first 10-win season since before the Death Penalty. He hired Lashlee as offensive coordinator. When he left, it infuriated SMU fans. And now — fair or not — he’s the face of ending the game.
“Everybody talks a lot about it, but I mean, I’ve been to many of those games and they haven’t sold out,” Dykes told CBS Sports. “And so it never seemed like it was a big deal until we weren’t going to play the game anymore.
“The game, for a long time, was probably not seen as a big game. I think now that both programs are good, it’s probably more so now that it was, but I think for a long time it was a game that was just kind of really playing each other because it’s convenient.”
But in some ways, it’s a fitting and unfortunate end to a rivalry that’s been defined more by missed connections than heavyweight bouts. That seemed poised to change after SMU made an unprecedented swing to land back in the power conferences.
TCU earned a trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2022. Last year, SMU won its way into the expanded CFP during its first year in the ACC, easily the best debut for a program ever in a power conference. And now, instead of playing perhaps the most meaningful rivalry games in nearly a century, the series will peter out.
“When you can beat up on a team, you want to play them all the time, see?” legendary SMU running back Eric Dickerson said. “I mean that was a great game. All I knew was that they were right down the street, they had their ugly mascot, their ugly frog and I used to love beating up on them.”
Missed connections
In 1935, TCU and SMU met for a “Game of the Century” as 10-0 teams vying for the Southwest Conference’s first trip to the Rose Bowl. Hall of Fame coaches Dutch Meyer (TCU) and Matty Bell (SMU) graced the sidelines, and record crowds showed out to watch the rivals battle.
TCU’s Sammy Baugh, considered one of the greatest players in the history of football, scored a game-tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter. However, SMU called a fake punt on fourth down to score a game-winning touchdown and earn a trip to the Rose Bowl in a game that Grantland Rice called one of the greatest games ever played.
Both teams claimed national championships after the season. The game never came close to replicating that stage over the next 90 years.
In 1936, the AP poll was formed, a consensus ranking to decide a unified national championship. From that moment on, there has never been a single AP ranked matchup between the two programs. In fact, the last time that both programs were even ranked at the end of the year simultaneously was 1958 — and the Ponies only entered because they beat No. 7 TCU.
It’s not for lack of success. Both programs have plenty of wins and conference championships. The timing has just never lined up.
SMU had an impressive run in the 1940s with legendary running back Doak Walker. The Frogs were finishing below .500. Then, TCU returned to form in the 1950s, right in time for SMU to fall apart. The legendary Pony Express under Bobby Collins owned the 1980s, while Gary Patterson ran away with the 2000s, even as both programs were left out of the power leagues after the fall of the Southwest Conference.
“That’s what I found to be really interesting is that I don’t know that either fan base seems to be that excited about it,” Dykes said. “I think there was this perception that when we were at SMU, we had the TCU game circled. That was not the case at all.”
Like so many factors with the post-Death Penalty years, interest waned at SMU. It didn’t help that TCU won 17 of 19 games over a stretch to start the 21st century. Especially after the Frogs jumped to the Big 12, the rivalry became almost irrelevant. It made signing onto the game easy when there was no risk involved.
For TCU, the rivalry game became more of a liability than a strength in recent years. For a rising SMU program, TCU was the standard to tear down, a proverbial Super Bowl for the Ponies that could only prove costly to the Frogs. Why legitimize it, some Frog fans wonder, especially when there’s a perfectly good Big 12 rivalry against Baylor that has taken center stage?
They’re not fully wrong. After SMU joined the ACC, TCU was a tentpole game for the Mustangs, a lone local game before a conference schedule of far flung opponents with no ties. College football at its core is about the eternal battle between neighbors. When the Iron Skillet goes on pause, so too will that dynamic across SMU’s schedule. The closest ACC opponent is 800 miles away.
Even after SMU bought its way to the highest echelon of the sport, it can’t manufacture hate. And ultimately, that could prove to be TCU’s most devastating parting blow.
Contrast of cultures
SMU, located in upscale University Park, represents the spoils of Dallas: Big money, glitzy cars and access to the biggest and best at your fingertips. Fort Worth? It’s much more laid back, embracing the nickname “Funky Town” for its offbeat culture and musical scene.
The overlap of communities have created fireworks over the years, especially among star players recruited by both programs.
Former SMU wide receiver Rashee Rice grew up outside of Fort Worth, but aligned himself fully with Dallas when the Frogs didn’t offer him. While with the Mustangs, he claimed no one visited Texas to come to Fort Worth, only Dallas. Jordan Hudson was a blue-chip wide receiver recruit who initially enrolled with the Mustangs before following Dykes to TCU. After one year, he knew he belonged on The Hilltop instead.
“We would even see players out in the summertime, and that same grit that existed on the field even extended on the field,” former TCU cornerback Jason Verrett told CBS Sports. “We never liked those guys and I know they didn’t like us.”
TCU quarterback Josh Hoover was recruited by Dykes while he was at SMU, but it just didn’t feel right for him. Hoover grew up in Rockwall, an exurban community east of Dallas. When Dykes took the TCU job and offered him, he flipped his commitment from Indiana immediately.
“I just didn’t love SMU,” Hoover admitted. “I love Fort Worth and I love the feel of this town. It’s a little more slow paced. Dallas is a good spot, didn’t grow up too far from there and spent a lot of time there, but it’s just fast paced.”
For SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings, Dallas is home. He became the first quarterback to lead a Dallas ISD school to a state championship since Dallas Carter’s legendary 1987 crown. He’s of the city, everything SMU football wants to display.
“As soon as that week came up my freshman year, I heard a lot about it,” Jennings said. “It was a really big week. It’s a really big rivalry.”
The echoes of that rivalry date back to the stories over the years. The hardest hit Dickerson ever took as a player was against TCU. He was a freshman with the Mustangs and missed a blitzing defensive back.
“I didn’t even remember walking to the locker room,” Dickerson said. “From that point on, I thought, I’m gonna get their asses for that. I used to love playing against TCU.”
TCU was in the midst of a dominant run of its own in 2011 when Verrett played in his first Iron Skillet. However, the No. 20 Frogs lost a stunner against SMU when a pass from Casey Pachall fell incomplete in overtime.
“They stopped us on fourth down and rushed the field,” Verrett said. “It was crazy to see that. My junior and senior season, we popped them. It was great to finish my career 2-1 against them.”
However, some of the most contentious moments have come in the past five years. Dykes was a transformational figure at SMU, leading the program to by far its greatest period of success since the Death Penalty. He also brought Lashlee to campus as offensive coordinator. When he left SMU for TCU after the 2021 season, fans were irate.
Dykes was showered with boos during his return to Gerald J. Ford Stadium in 2022, but the Frogs survived a 42-34 nailbiter and ultimately reached the national title game. He teased the crowd by waving as he headed to the exits after fans chanted “f— you, Sonny!”
Two years later, Dykes was ejected after multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties as SMU housed his Frogs 66-42 to set off the Mustangs’ first CFP appearance. Most likely, that will be his final ever image on the sideline of Ford Stadium.
A future stolen
With the level of investment at both programs, expectations are off the charts. SMU and TCU both expect to contend for conference titles and playoff appearances. It should be the perfect moment for this rivalry to supercharge, similar to the competitive Baylor-TCU games of the mid-2010s.
Instead, when a winner claims the rivalry game in 2025, it will be for the last time for the foreseeable future. The winner will permanently walk away with the Iron Skillet, which according to legend, became the signature symbol after an SMU fan was seen taunting TCU by frying frog legs before a game in 1946.
To hear TCU tell it, it’s in the interest of revenue generation. The Horned Frogs want to guarantee seven home games a year to deliver more for season ticket holders. There have been rumors that TCU offered SMU a two-for-one setup that would give the Frogs twice as many home games, the kind of situation typically reserved for non-power schools. Naturally, the Mustangs would never accept that — nor should they.
Adding another level of bizarre to the situation, nearly every decision maker is gone. Both programs have flipped presidents and athletic directors in the last calendar year. The only consistent figures are the football coaches themselves.
However, there is a legitimate logistical hurdle. Because of the matchup scheduled when SMU was a non-power program, TCU is one of two programs nationally to play 11 Power Four games. The other was Baylor, which also played the Mustangs in a similar situation. The combination of a nine-game conference schedule and rising SMU team makes the scheduling complicated.
“We just don’t need to be playing 11 Power Four teams,” Dykes said. “The way our scheduling is now, it doesn’t make any sense in the immediate future… I think it’s good for us to play them, you know? But right now, it doesn’t make any sense for either school.”
The same existential question could be coming to interconference rivals across the sport. Iowa and Iowa State have essentially accepted that they will maintain the game, and in exchange, never play other major nonconference games. That’s a tradeoff they’re willing to accept.
That sell won’t play as well in the SEC or ACC. Four different teams play intrastate, interconference battles during Rivalry Week. However, the SEC is set to go to nine conference games, creating a substantially more difficult slate if a school like South Carolina or Kentucky wants to fight for the postseason.
TCU is the first to pull the plug on a meaningful nonconference game, a canary in the coal mine. They won’t be the last.
“If we still want big-time nonconference games, we better make it more accessible to get in the playoff,” Lashlee said. “If you’ve got to play nine conference games and it’s all a popularity contest, does it benefit you to lose a marquee nonconference game? Probably not.”
Ninety years ago, TCU and SMU brought North Texan neighbors together to watch one of the most pivotal games in the history of college football. When the dust settles, they’ll prepare to play teams from Arizona and upstate New York in service of money and access.
And at the end of it all, fans will glance longingly 40 miles down Interstate 30 and wonder what should have been.
“I think TCU is losing out on this,” former SMU running back Craig James said. “TCU needs to drop their pride and recognize: We need to play SMU.”
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