TCU pausing Battle for the Iron Skillet vs. SMU after 2025
TCU is “indefinitely pausing” the Battle for the Iron Skillet, according to a report from Action Network’s Brett McMurphy on Wednesday. The annual game between SMU and TCU will run through the 2025 season as of now.
After that, it’ll end with 104 meetings in the history books of college football. As conference realignment hampers long-standing rivalries across the country, TCU is sticking a fork in the Battle for the Iron Skillet.
SMU won two straight in 2019 and 2021 with TCU head coach Sonny Dykes Dykes at the helm and the first with now SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee as his offensive coordinator). TCU held off a late SMU push to win in Dallas, 42-34, in 2022.
The Horned Frogs lead the rivalry 52-42-7.
Lashlee, Dykes talk SMU-TCU
Lashlee made it clear that the Mustangs want to keep battling the Horned Frogs. Long story short, it’s a good thing for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex in their eyes.
“Look, the game’s been played for over 100 years or something. I don’t know why we wouldn’t play,” Lashlee said at the Texas High School Coaches Convention. “We’re always willing to play them. If they decide they don’t want to play us one day, that’s kind of their decision. I think it’s good for Texas football, I think it’s good for the Dallas metroplex to have Dallas’ team and Ft. Worth’s team playing.”
Dykes has his eyes set on setting up the fans in Ft. Worth with a good number of home games. They’re also eyeing how the new College Football Playoff format impacts what the Frogs will do scheduling wise. The Battle for the Iron Skillet from his angle is something that is expendable because of that.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that thing plays out,” Dykes said at the same event. “When you transition from a 4-team playoff to a 12-team playoff in my opinion, that changes your scheduling dynamic. This year, TCU we won two non-conference road games. This 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.
“What does scheduling look like from a non-conference standpoint? It’s really, really important to be smart about the scheduling. You’ve got to do a good job of No. 1, taking care of your season ticket holders. No. 2, making your situation make sense for you when it comes to the end goal. That rivalry’s one of those things that we’ll kind of see how it plays out and how it fits into the whole thing.”
