SMU to move future games against 2 SEC teams to home of Dallas Cowboys, per report
Published:
SMU will be giving its fans a flashback to its football history in the state of Texas while it provides a few SEC fan bases with a different backdrop for some future showdowns.
According to a report by On3’s Brett McMurphy on Thursday morning, SMU is moving home games against Oklahoma in 2027 and LSU in 2029 to AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys in nearby Arlington, Texas. The matchups against 2 SEC powerhouses in the grand home of the Cowboys will be an ode to SMU’s football past, when the Mustangs used to play home games at old Texas Stadium in Irving.
These future showdowns will be the first time SMU plays home games in the Cowboys’ stadium since the Pony Express glory days in the 1980s.
According to the On3 report, SMU is moving the Oklahoma and LSU matchups to a much bigger venue “for branding and revenue opportunities.” SMU’s on-campus venue, Gerald J. Ford Stadium, has a capacity of just 33,200, which pales in comparison to the 80,000-seat spectacle that is AT&T Stadium.
SMU’s matchup against Oklahoma in Arlington will be played early in the 2027 season on Sept. 11, so Sooners fans will get a taste of the Cowboys’ huge venue before their team ventures into SEC play. That showdown will compete a home-and-home series with Oklahoma, with the first half of that already being won by the Sooners in Norman in 2023.
Meanwhile, the first half of SMU’s home-and-home series with LSU will be staged in 2028 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, followed by the reported matchup between the programs in Arlington on Sept. 1, 2029. SMU and LSU will be playing each other for the first time since 1934.
During those glory days at SMU from 1979-86, the Mustangs played all of their home games at Texas Stadium, the home of the Cowboys before they moved into AT&T Stadium.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
