Meetings total 32 Largest victory Houston, 95–21 (1989) | All-time series Houston leads, 20–11–1 Longest win streak Houston, 6 (2006–11) | |
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First meeting September 27, 1975
SMU 27, Houston 16 Latest meeting October 22, 2016
SMU 38, Houston 16 | ||
The Houston–SMU football rivalry is a college football rivalry between the Houston Cougars and SMU Mustangs. Houston leads the series 20–11–1.
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Series history
The first game took place on September 27, 1975, in Houston, Texas, and the two schools have continued to play each other with few interruptions since. Houston and SMU spent much of their athletic histories as members of the same conference: the Southwest Conference from 1977 to 1995, the Conference USA from 2005 to 2012, and their current conference of the American Athletic Conference since 2013.
1983 Mirage Bowl
The Tokyo, Japan bowl known as the Mirage Bowl was the longest road trip for both schools in their school history. A crowd of 62,000 watched as Lance McIlhenny led the Mustangs with two touchdown passes and along with the mistakes of the Cougars, which helped SMU take the victory 34–12.