It’s over. The final chapter has been written, published, and laminated.
The Iron Skillet series pitting crosstown rivals SMU and TCU originated in 1915, five years before the dawn of the National Football
League. The Dallas-based Mustangs and Fort Worth-based Horned Frogs settled their differences on the field for over a century, colliding 104 times until an abrupt conclusion on Sept. 21, 2025.
In the modern era of conference realignment, we’ve seen a plethora of historic rivalries meet their demise, from the nation’s oldest non-conference rivalry of Cincinnati vs. Miami (OH) to the Bedlam Series with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the Bayou Bucket between Houston and Rice. The Iron Skillet witnessed a similar fate in August 2023 when former TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati (now at South Carolina) indefinitely paused the series vs. SMU, fresh off a National Championship appearance. One month later, the Mustangs gambled on a transformative change for themselves, departing the American Conference and bypassing on all media rights revenue for nine years just for a shot to compete in the ACC.
SMU’s decision paid off as the Mustangs expeditiously rose into a power. SMU cleared its first ACC regular season conference slate and qualified for the ACC Championship Game, and subsequently, the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. And given that SMU and TCU both qualified for conference title games and the CFP in the last three years, it seems like the rivalry should be stronger than ever, instead of on its last legs.
TCU had a stranglehold on the series for the first two decades of the 21st century, winning 17 of 19 meetings from 1999 to 2018. But the recent rise of SMU quickly turned the previously-predictable Iron Skillet into a more interesting bout, and now the teams have split the last six installments. The Mustangs won the final matchup in Dallas 66-42 in 2024. However, on Saturday afternoon in front of a record student crowd in Fort Worth, TCU exacted revenge and cemented the series with a 35-24 victory.
“I’m sure it was a really big deal for them to win this game after what we did to them last year,” SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said postgame. “They were motivated. We put 66 on them. We didn’t beat them today. They did. We’re 3-3 in the last six times we played. They were the ones that chose not to play, and when you lose, you can’t really say anything. But I think they know what we’re building. I think they know what’s coming. I think everybody else does. This stinks. I hate losing. I hate losing to them. I hate losing to anybody. I hate it for our players, our fans, our administration, our donors — everybody. They all care. They’re all invested in this. We represent them, and I hate it when we don’t come through for them.”
TCU players — running back Jeremy Payne, wide receiver Jordan Dwyer, and safety Austin Jordan — specifically sought out the location of the Iron Skillet the instant the clock reached triple zeros. The players posed with their potentially permanent prized possession, excitedly shouting and brainstorming the food they’d envision cooking in the sport’s most historic kitchen appliance.
It was a scene that makes college football unique, and the celebration was distinctive to the Iron Skillet. SMU cannot replicate it next year when it visits Notre Dame and TCU cannot when it plays North Carolina. Rivalries can always form, but over 100 years of history and an unalterable geographic connection made the Iron Skillet special, and now it will longer be a staple in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
“You know, it’s college football. It’s business,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said. “Sometimes people have to make business decisions and sometimes nobody likes them. I think the idea is, ‘Oh, Coach Dykes is scared of the Iron Skillet game. Five out of the last six is what we won (referencing his personal record, not TCU’s). I think that’s a Meat Loaf song, right? Five out of six ain’t bad. He’s a DFW guy. But I ain’t too scared.”
Dykes’ record does back up his claim. The head coach went 2-1 at SMU in the rivalry, winning the 2019 and 2021 meetings with the underdog Mustangs. When TCU parted ways with longtime head coach Gary Patterson one month after the 2021 Iron Skillet, Dykes traded his red and blue for purple and traveled 40 miles west to fulfill TCU’s head coaching vacancy. Since manning the Horned Frog sidelines, he is 3-1 against his former school and will exit the rivalry on the victorious side.
“We try to approach it as another football game,” Dykes said as a reason for his success in the rivalry. “That was our approach at SMU. That was our approach here was build a good football program, show up for the game, play hard, don’t get caught up in the hype — and I did last year. I’m the reason we lost the game last year because I got caught up in the hype. Our teams have never done that, so none of us did it this year. Learned our lesson from last year and improved.”
While Dykes offered the ‘just another game’ approach, Lashlee spoke in depth on the rivalry’s meaning, citing it wasn’t SMU’s decision to dissolve the century-long series. However, the SMU head coach accepts an alternate future as the Mustangs replaced their annual skirmish vs. TCU with several high-profile non-conference matchups.
“They didn’t want to play us no matter what, whether they would have won or lost, so you’ll have to ask them,” Lashlee said. “We weren’t the ones that wanted to stop playing the game. We’re gonna play the teams on our schedule. We’re in the ACC, one of the best three leagues in America. We’re gonna go to Notre Dame next year, then we’re gonna have OU come to town and then we’re gonna go home-and-home with LSU, and then we’re gonna keep building a program that keeps playing on that stage. And we’re not gonna worry about what happens 40 miles west of us.”
Conference realignment brought Texas and Texas A&M back together. Pitt and West Virginia renewed their Backyard Brawl series. Thus, it’s possible we haven’t seen the true ending of the Iron Skillet. But until that day, where does the Skillet simmer? The TCU staffer who presented the trophy to the players postgame told me it will reside somewhere in the TCU athletic offices. But Dykes had other ideas when asked postgame.
“Probably get a sledgehammer and break it,” Dykes joked, before answering more earnestly. “Our players have it right now and they’re excited about it. We took a picture, and now we’ll probably cook something in it.”
