107 games in the last 114 years. It started in 1899. 50-50-7. Tied for the 18th most played rivalry in college football. More meetings than OU-UT, OU-OSU, UT-TT, etc. The only continuing Big 12 rivalry game played more than TCU-Baylor is Kansas-Kansas State who have met 109 times. By far the most played private school rivalry in FBS.
Starting this season, TCU-Baylor is the most-played, ongoing in-state rivalry.
- A&M-Baylor has been played 108 times, we'll tie that this year
- A&M-Texas has been played 118 times, so if the Longhorns hold out on their refusal to play A&M, TCU-Baylor will become the most-played Texas rivalry in history in about 2023.
Should Baylor and TCU remain in the same conference and old rivalries split by conference defections refuse to continue, we can pass quite a few as "most played" in the next few years: Mizzou-Kansas is #2 at 120, Texas-A&M is #3 at 118, Nebraska-Kansas is #4 at 117, Utah-Utah State stopped playing in 2009 and that rivalry is #12 at 109 meetings. We'll climb to tie A&M-Baylor this year with 108 games.
I think it's time to ditch the anti-Baylor attitude and admit that the game really means something to everyone. In the post-SWC days, the SMU rivalry was important to keep an away game somewhat close to home. But with Baylor back on the annual schedule, I see no reason why we shouldn't embrace that as our primary rival. Baylor fans seem willing and ready to do so, and we share a mutual disdain for each other.
I was an SMU-TCU game supporter for a long time. But the more I consider it, the more it makes sense to spend less time hating SMU and more time just looking down my nose at them. Gotta save the hate for Baylor. With the changes in the conference landscape, SMU's move to the Big East hasn't really done much for them except garner a little more money (though it's relative). With the Big 12, we've finally left SMU behind, too far behind to catch up.
With a 9-game conference schedule, and Gary Patterson's fondness for one FCS team every year, if we lock ourselves into playing SMU all the time, we end up with only one open game every year. That doesn't give us many opportunities to play different teams from different conferences. As far ahead as you have to plan for OOC games, it's hard to know what impact a team will have on your SOS, but you can be sure that SMU will be a drag with their games against Memphis, USF, UCF, Temple, etc. I'd rather see us play one SEC team OOC every year and one PAC/B1G team every year.