It’s back on! TCU football to host SMU in rivalry’s 100th meeting to open 2020 season
The Battle for the Iron Skillet is back on.
TCU and SMU have agreed to play a nonconference football game on Sept. 12 in Fort Worth, TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati announced Saturday. A kickoff time and TV coverage is to be announced.
The game had been canceled earlier this month when the Big 12 opted for a “plus-one” schedule that featured one home nonconference game followed by nine conference games.
TCU had been scheduled to play at SMU in Dallas on Sept. 26, but that game wasn’t a possibility when the Big 12 announced the revised schedule. Even though SMU offered to play in Fort Worth, the Horned Frogs had already reached an agreement to play Tennessee Tech on Sept. 12.
However, Tennessee Tech backed out of the game on Friday when the Ohio Valley Conference postponed fall sports amid the coronavirus pandemic. That reopened the possibility of TCU and SMU continuing its rivalry on the field this season, and TCU reached out about that.
“There continues to be a lot of uncertainty about the season, but I am thrilled we were able to continue our annual series with longtime rival SMU,” Donati said in a statement.
SMU will play three straight seasons in Fort Worth (2019, 2020 and 2021). The 2022 game will be in Dallas. The last time a team played consecutive seasons on the road was TCU at SMU in 2000 and 2001.
This will mark the 100th anniversary of the TCU-SMU rivalry. TCU leads the all-time series 51-41-7.
The two schools have met every season this century except for 2006. The programs also didn’t play in 1987-88 (SMU didn’t field a team those seasons), 1925 and 1919-20. The only team TCU has faced more is Baylor (115 meetings).
SMU upset TCU last season 41-38 in Fort Worth. It was just the third time TCU coach Gary Patterson fell to the Mustangs in his career. Patterson owns a 15-3 all-time record against SMU.
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 12:25 PM.
