First meeting | October 30, 1926 TCU 28, Texas Tech 16 |
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Latest meeting | October 29, 2016 Texas Tech 27, TCU 24 (2OT) |
Next meeting | 2017 |
Trophy | Saddle Trophy (1961–c. 1970) |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 59 |
All-time series | Texas Tech leads, 31–25–3 |
Largest victory | Texas Tech, 63–7 (1985) |
Longest win streak | Texas Tech, 6 (1973–78, 1985–90) |
Current win streak | Texas Tech, 1 (2016–present) |
The TCU–Texas Tech football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the TCU Horned Frogs football team of Texas Christian University (TCU) and Texas Tech Red Raiders football team of Texas Tech University. The teams have met on the gridiron in 58 games since 1926. For a period in the mid-20th century, this rivalry game was called the "West Texas Championship", and the winner claimed the "Saddle Trophy."
From 1926 through 1955, TCU and Texas Tech frequently played as non-conference opponents.
In 1956, Texas Tech joined the Southwest Conference (SWC), and the teams played annually as conference opponents, except in 1957 (as Texas Tech was not a full member of the SWC until 1960), until the conference's dissolution in 1995.
After the dissolution of the SWC, the teams played a home-and-home series in 2004 and 2006 with the home team winning each time (Texas Tech in 2004, TCU in 2006).
In 2012, TCU joined the Big 12 Conference and the teams renewed their annual rivalry.
Texas Tech leads the series 31–25–3. The series' 3 ties came in 3 straight games in Lubbock in 1979, 1981 and 1983. The series has featured many large margins of victory. Texas Tech's largest victory was by 56 points, in a 63–7 victory on November 9, 1985, in Lubbock, and TCU's largest victory was by 55 points, in a 82–27 victory in Fort Worth on October 25, 2014. The 82 points scored was the most points ever scored against Texas Tech and the most points ever scored against any team in Big 12 history. The Frogs and Raiders have only met twice with both teams ranked in the top 25, in 2006 and 2012. Both games were played in Fort Worth and won by the higher-ranked team (TCU 12–3 in 2006 and Texas Tech in 3OT 56–53 in 2012).
Rankings based on the Associated Press Poll released prior to the game.