The SMU Mustangs and Baylor Bears have scheduled a home-and-home football series for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, both schools announced on Tuesday.
In the first game of the series, SMU will host Baylor at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 6, 2025. The series will conclude the following season when the Mustangs travel to face the Bears at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2026.
SMU and Baylor first met on the gridiron in 1916 and have played 82 contests overall. The Bears have won the last 13 meetings in the series, which spans from 1989 through 2016, and currently hold a three-game advantage in the overall series, 39-36-7.
With the addition of Baylor, SMU now has two power conference opponents scheduled for the 2025 season. The Mustangs are also scheduled to visit the TCU Horned Frogs on Sept. 20. SMU can play a total of four non-conference games to go along with its eight-game ACC slate.
Baylor is the first announced non-conference opponent for SMU in 2026.
Baylor now has two non-conference opponents announced for both the 2025 and 2026 seasons, and both are from power leagues. The Bears have a series on the books with the Auburn Tigers, at home on Aug. 30, 2025 and on the road on Sept. 5, 2026.
With a nine-game Big 12 schedule, Baylor needs only one non-conference opponent in 2025 and 2026. If past scheduling is any indication, both opponents will come from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Football Schedules
TCU has chosen not to grow its 1st, biggest, closest rivalry. IMO, the Fort Worth vs Dallas Metroplex is a vibrant rivalry.
In 2023, the TCU Horned Frogs announced they were pausing the rivalry after 2025.
Baylor Uni. Bears vs SMU Mustangs renews a SouthWestConference connection left @ the landfill in 1996.
Hooray for the Mustangs & Bears giving SMU a next best instate TX Game between the Waco & Dallas regions.
Since the Mustangs are playing Atlantic Coast Conf. Foes based on the Eastern Seaboard & 2 Time Zones away on the Pacific Ocean this = the only same culture, same history Foe outside of TCU – Fort Worth.
Debate, discussion, rebuttal, empirical numbers to debunk my logic?
TCU must be trying to please a few wealthy boosters who think TCU is now “big time”, and should ignore SMU and instead schedule early season cupcake games at home like the Longhorns and Aggies do. Money talks, and if TCU gets big donations in exchange for not playing SMU, that’s what they’ll do.