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Battle for the Iron Skillet: What's next for SMU-TCU football rivalry after 2025 game?
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- Battle for the Iron Skillet: What's next for SMU-TCU football rivalry after 2025 game?
College football isn't college football without its rivalries, and Week 4 is packed with them.
Of those that are set to take place in the Week 4 schedule, one of the most notable, longest-standing of them is the Battle for the Iron Skillet between SMU and TCU . The annual rivalry game between the two Texas rivals will be played this season at noon ET inside Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday, Sept. 20.
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Saturday's meeting will send the rivalry series into a hiatus, as there is not a future game scheduled between the two following Saturday after they've been playing against each since 1915, which includes 103 games.
SMU took home the appropriately named Iron Skillet trophy — a roughly 30-pound cast iron skillet — last season for the first time since 2021, and just the 43rd time in the rivalries history.
Here's what to know on the future of Battle for the Iron Skillet:
When did the Battle for the Iron Skillet rivalry begin?
As noted by both SMU and TCU's media guides, the first edition of the Battle for the Iron Skillet took place in 1915, when the Horned Frogs shutout the Mustangs 43-0.
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What's next for Battle for the Iron Skillet?
Saturday's edition of the Battle for the Iron Skillet rivalry between SMU and TCU will mark the final scheduled meeting between both programs, as of the 2025 college football season. The in-state foes don't have a scheduled game against each other in the upcoming future.
Both programs have played annually since 1921, with the exception of the 1925 season.
The decision to not renew or add games to rivalry series between the two came in 2023, when Rick Hart and Jeremiah Donati were the respective athletic directors at SMU and TCU. It also came just before SMU was accepted into the ACC as part the conference realignment that took place at the Power Four conference level.
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"It is disappointing that TCU made the decision to 'pause' our football series," Hart said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News . "It's disappointing for Metroplex football fans. This is a rivalry that has spanned a century-plus. It is the Battle for the Iron Skillet, Dallas vs. Fort Worth, Doak Walker versus Sammy Baugh, the Pony Express versus LaDainian Tomlinson, and more. It's the game Grantland Rice, the famous sportswriter called 'The Game of the Century' in 1935. It is the very fabric of college football. Our hope is that TCU will resume the series, as we want to continue this rivalry in perpetuity."
In a 2023 statement, Donati mentioned that TCU wanted to play "more home games."
"We have a tremendous respect for SMU and the Battle of the Iron Skillet, which dates back over one hundred years," Donati told 247Sports' Jamie Plunkett. "Playing more home games has been a priority for us and our fans, and is, most importantly, in the best interest of the TCU football program. We look forward to annually having seven home games and as many as eight in certain years. As our future non-conference schedules evolve, we keep open the possibility of future games with the Mustangs."
REQUIRED READING: Why is SMU-TCU called 'Battle for the Iron Skillet?' History, stats, more for Texas rivalry
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TCU-SMU football series history
SMU leads the Battle for the Iron Skillet series with a 53-43-7 all-time record, per SMU and TCU's media guides.
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Battle for the Iron Skillet record:SMU leads 53-43-7
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SMU's last win:2024 (66-42)
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TCU's last win:2023 (34-17)
The rivalry began in 1915 when both programs were part of the former Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA), though the vast majority of the Iron Skillet rivalry occurred in the former Southwest Conference (SWC), with the Mustangs joining in 1918 and the Horned Frogs joining in 1923.
Both programs left the SWC following its dissolution after the 1995 college football season, continuing their rivalry even as they traversed various conferences, including concurrent membership in the Western Athletic Conference from 1996 through 2000.
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TCU left the WAC for Conference USA — where it was a member from 2001 through 2004 — while SMU remained in the WAC through 2004. TCU then joined the Mountain West in 2005, the same season SMU joined C-USA.
The Horned Frogs and Mustangs stayed in those conferences through the 2011 and 2012 seasons, respectively. TCU began its Big 12 membership in 2012, while SMU played in the formerly named American Athletic Conference from 2013 through 2023.
Through it all, the Battle for the Iron Skillet persisted.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Future of the Iron Skillet: What to know of SMU-TCU football rivalry
