ARLINGTON, Texas -- After two plus decades, TCU and SMU are again on "the same plane" managing their long frenemy friendship.
They're the rich couples at the 19th hole of the country club who act nice to their face, but behind the respective backs degrade and minimize everything the other does.
Both are convinced they are prettier than the other, even if the rest of America views them in the same general category: Small, private wealthy schools in Dallas-Fort Worth. People throughout DFW know the dozens of differences between SMU and TCU, even if their challenges are identical.
Fans, administrators and coaches at the respective universities only need to look at 1995 to see the invisible cord that links this pair to the "power structure" of major college athletics. Both are on secure footing today, here in 2024, but the lessons of 1995 can never be ignored.
TCU plays at SMU on Saturday in Dallas in what is the second-to-last of the "Iron Skillet" rivalry that will be on "pause" after the 2025 season. This will be the first time both are in a "power league" since they were members of the Southwest Conference, in 1995.
As far as they have come since that season, neither is ever that far away from the 3 a.m. phone call.
The man charged with informing both TCU and SMU that neither "made the cut" when the Big 8 joined four members of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 has a soft vision of a future of college football that is an echo throughout the industry. It would effectively be a case of 1995 happening all over again.
"I don't know how you keep it (intact) except, 'What is the next step?' " Steve Hatchell said in a recent interview. Hatchell was the last commissioner of the Southwest Conference and was responsible for forming the then-new Big 12 in '96.
"What if someone comes in and says, 'We're going to put the top 50 schools together in one entity?' Is that the next step? I don't know. It could be. There are enough entities out there that look at it from that perspective that you think maybe that is the case.
"I think good minds will prevail in the future but there are threats. There is declining enrollment in a lot of universities. Money gets to be even more critical. Developing money for athletic programs to help with universities is more critical. Where are colleges and universities going?
"It comes down to money. That's why we did the Big 12 and how it came together. We needed a helluva TV deal. Our first TV deal was $100 million, and people couldn't believe that."
That would be about $200 million in today's dollars. The Big 12's latest media rights deal is worth $2.3 billion.
After the Big 12 put TCU and SMU on the short bus outta town, the two joined the Western Athletic Conference; they were both in that league from 1996 to '99. During that stretch, TCU began the process of establishing its own identity away from SMU, mostly by becoming a brand name in college football.
While TCU climbed both the national rankings, and conferences, under head football coach Gary Patterson, SMU was irate that its cross-town little brother enjoyed the success it craved.
Over the summer, SMU's long efforts to join a major athletic conference paid off when it used its greatest asset, cash, to effectively buy its way into the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). By accepting far less of the revenue than fellow ACC members in the league's media rights deal, SMU could have potentially set a precedent for the "smaller schools" that will effectively have to pay to be affiliated with the premier leagues.
SMU boosters, alums and administrators believe an affiliation with the ACC is worth the price.
Much like TCU, SMU has spent a small fortune to upgrade everything in order to find the Ark of the Covenant in higher education: Winning football games. Winning football teams are still the best way to drive donations, and applications.
Since 1989, SMU has had 10 winning football seasons, including five straight. While some members of TCU's athletic administration have blown off, or ignored, SMU's current trend, a handful of others nervously look at what the Ponies are doing, and the money they are spending.
While the two fake-handshake their way through another season, they both look at the future of major college athletics that neither has much input in swaying. Their money can buy a lot, but the only small private school with any influence in big time college sports is Notre Dame; the rest all pray they are invited to the party.
Because if you want to see the potential future of college sports, which until told differently is still controlled by linear television, go back to the origins of the Big 12.
"The Big 8 had 7 1/2 percent of the television sets in America. The Southwest Conference had 7 1/2 percent," Hatchell said. "You put them together and you've got 15 percent and now you can get a TV deal. That's what put it all together.
"Back then, you were on your own as a conference. You had to make your own deals. The vision was keeping 12 together. The tough part was asking four (SWC members SMU, TCU, Rice and Houston) to move on."
Most people associated with TCU and SMU have no recollection of '95, and the humbling effect it had on both universities.
However they did it, both are back on the "same plane" here in 2024, and while they have come so far they would be wise to know that what happened in 1995 can always happen again.
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