Thanksgiving trifecta for Cowboys Stadium?
The Dallas Cowboys will kick off the festivities with their annual Thanksgiving Day game, and negotiations on two fronts are in the works to bring two college football games to Arlington.
Texas Tech and Baylor hope to soon finalize their Big 12 Conference game at Cowboys Stadium for Saturday, Nov. 26. Those two teams played in North Texas the last two seasons, at Cowboys Stadium in 2009 and at the Cotton Bowl last season.
On Friday, Nov. 25, how about TCU vs. BYU?
Th0se two schools, no longer Mountain West Conference rivals now that BYU has gone independent, are in negotiations to play a non-conference game at Cowboys Stadium, according to two sources. The Thanksgiving date is not a firm one, but one that makes sense. The Frogs initially offered to play Tech at JerryWorld after the Red Raiders last week dropped TCU from the 2011 schedule. Tech didn't take the offer, likely because it was already negotiating to play Baylor there. Two games in one season at The Big Yard is unnecessary.
A TCU-Tech mathup would have been played in September. However, BYU's 12-game 2011 schedule is booked through Oct. 29, the first of two bye weeks. The other bye week is Nov. 26. Because of a provision that allows teams that travel to Hawaii, which BYU does, to add a 13th game, the Cougars' Thanksgiving bye is rather convenient.
TCU has just two non-conference games scheduled (at Baylor, Sept. 3; vs. SMU, Oct. 1) and would have flexibility within its Moutain West Conference schedule, which won't be set for likely another month, to play BYU at Cowboys Stadium on Thanksgiving Friday. That matchup would seem a perfect fit for ESPN, which struck a deal with BYU once it left the MWC.
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Richard Durrett
Richard Durrett joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He writes about colleges, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. Richard spent nine years at The Dallas Morning News covering the Rangers, Stars, colleges, motorsports and high schools.
Tim MacMahon
Tim MacMahon joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. Tim covers the Cowboys and Mavericks. He has covered the local sports scene from high schools to colleges to pros during his six-year tenure at The Dallas Morning News. MacMahon is a graduate of UNT.
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