The TCU Horned Frogs host No. 18 Texas Tech on Saturday in Fort Worth. Texas Tech beat an Iowa State team that knocked off TCU earlier in the year and TCU coach Gary Patterson acknowledged in his Tuesday press conference that interstate rivalry games can mean more than regular matchups:
"If you ask if I could win a game between Iowa State or Baylor, I would say Baylor. If you asked me the same thing about Iowa State and Texas Tech, I would say Texas Tech. We know Baylor. We know the kids at Texas Tech, and there are bragging rights on the line."
Asked whether this was as big a rivalry as, say, Texas, since the two teams have not played each other much recently, Patterson said that since so many players faced each other in high school, "there is a natural rivalry." Texas Tech and TCU haven't squared off since 2006, when No. 20 TCU beat No. 22 Texas Tech 12-3 in Fort Worth. That came two years after Tech beat TCU 70-35 in Lubbock.
In the Southwestern Conference days, the teams did play every year from 1950-1995. The Red Raiders own a 28-23-3 advantage in the series, which began in 1926.
Don't be fooled though, there's more than bragging rights on the line Saturday, as both teams are 2-1 in Big 12 play, a game behind Kansas State.