College football fans don't often refer to the North Texas-SMU rivalry game by its proper name: the "Safeway Bowl." Who even shops at Safeway supermarkets anymore? There aren't any in Texas.

The rivalry's government name spawned from a 1994 quote by North Texas head coach Matt Simon during a pause in the series.

"I'd like to play them because I think we can beat them, and my players feel the same way," Simon said. "If they'd like to play on a Safeway parking lot, just give us a date and time."

In that respect, the "Safeway Bowl" is fitting for a game that one team views as a regional rivalry and one team sees as a way to fill a schedule hole with a nearby program a rung below them. 

This game doesn't have the consistency of the "Iron Skillet" between SMU and TCU being played 102 times. It's never been that competitive, SMU leads the all-time series 35–6–1. North Texas' only win in Dallas came when they were still North Texas State Teachers College in 1933, besting the Mustangs 7-0. That happened during the 21 years between 1922-42, where SMU compiled an 18–1–1 and outscored their rival 345-12. 

Since then, the game has been played intermittently. SMU, in the height of the Pony Express era in which it won two national championships in 1981 and '82, went 7–1 against Missouri Valley Conference member North Texas from 1974-84. There was a three-game stretch from 1989-92 as SMU was clawing back from the NCAA-imposed Death Penalty. Then, a home-and-home in 2006-07.

The current streak of games, in which SMU holds a 7–2 mark, will end at 8 p.m. on Friday night when SMU hosts an in-conference game against North Texas for the first and final time. North Texas's ascension to the American Athletic Conference at the beginning of the 2023 season marked the end of this matchup. Because for the first time, even through the doldrums of the Death Penalty, SMU found itself on the same level as perceived "little brother" North Texas. They banged on the Pac-12's door as the conference's house burned to the ground and then opted to forgo nine years of TV revenue to jump to the ACC, away from North Texas and the "Safeway Bowl."

"The president of SMU forgot to call me when they were deciding to go to the Power Five level," North Texas head coach Eric Morris joked Tuesday.

Let's be clear - SMU wasn't determined to get to the Power Five to escape North Texas. This game ending was a consequence that wasn't factored in. SMU has never viewed North Texas as a cross-town rival. As the series became more uneven, North Texas fans stopped seeing them as rivals, too, instead leaning into their back-and-forth affair with UTSA. SMU was motivated by what the ACC's allure would do for their university. Thirty trustees and key donors pooled $100 million together the week after the announcement to support the move. SMU saw a 103 percent increase in visitors to its undergraduate admissions homepage.

SMU isn't even necessarily opposed to playing North Texas sporadically in the future.

"There's nothing on the horizon," SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said Wednesday. "It's obvious we're both in the Metroplex, so it makes sense in some areas. I don't have any reason to believe we're going to play them every year moving forward. But we're also not opposed to playing them if it ever works out that way, either."

But the final game for the foreseeable future against North Texas is also a microcosm of the games SMU would like to leave behind. The Mustangs' 7–2 record puts it in position for their second double-digit win season since 1985. They're the betting favorite to win the Amercian Athletic Conference, per Caeser's, which would mean a New Year's Six bowl birth. 

This could be a nationally intriguing mid-November conference clash. They'll host 3–6 North Texas on the first Friday night of the Texas High School Playoffs, with a late kickoff at 8 p.m. for ESPN2's telecast.

"This will be a game that we’ll have to create our own energy," Morris said. "Friday night, first round of the (TXHSFB) playoffs. I'm sure Highland Park plays that night ... I wouldn't foresee this being a sold-out crowd at all."

Despite the expected lackluster crowd, this game has plenty of implications for SMU. Picked third in the preseason conference poll, SMU has tried all year to prove they're a better team than favorites Tulane and UTSA without actually getting a chance to play either head-to-head. North Texas could be a proxy, however, because after Friday night they'll have faced all three teams within four weeks. The Mean Green ripped 28 points in the second half to take Tulane to the wire. They held UTSA's high-powered offense to 10 second-half points in a 37-29 loss last week.

Lashlee doesn't see it as such. He said North Texas is an important game for them because the Chandler Rogers-led offense is explosive, the defense is playing well enough to keep them in ball games and they have the best special teams in the conference. 

"Tulane beat East Carolina 13-10. We beat them 31-10. Nobody cares," Lashlee said. "That doesn't have any bearing on the next game. All that matters this time of year is, 'Do you find a way to win?' That doesn't have any bearing on a measuring stick for us. We're going to have to play really well on Friday night."

If SMU steamrolls North Texas, it'll be a serious contender for a New Year's Six Bowl, continuing its launchpad trajectory toward AAC graduation. They're one of four teams in the country with a top-ten scoring defense and scoring offense. But North Texas has an opportunity to stick a pin in SMU's expanding hype balloon with a win on Friday night in front of a fan base too focused on the future to ramp up for a rivalry they never considered as such.