Sport Football Meetings total 36 | Next meeting September 9, 2017 | |
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First meeting October 7, 1922
SMU 66, North Texas 0 Latest meeting September 3, 2016
SMU 34, North Texas 21 All-time series SMU leads 30–5–1 (.847) | ||
The Safeway Bowl is a college football rivalry game between the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs football team and the University of North Texas (UNT) Mean Green football team, two universities in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its name is derived from a challenge from then UNT head coach Matt Simon issued in 1994 after a two-year break in the series, stating "I'd like to play because I think we could beat them, and my players feel the same way. If they'd like to play on a Safeway parking lot ... just give us a date and time."
The schools have played 35 times dating back to 1922 with two hiatuses, from 1992 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2014. The most recent meetings between the two teams occurred in 2016, when the Mustangs defeated the Mean Green, 34–21. In 2013, North Texas announced that the teams would play each other each year between 2014 and 2025, alternating home fields between each year.