TCU ‘No Joke!' Cowboys Jerry Jones on ‘Magical’ Title Chance Vs. Georgia

No matter what happens to the Dallas Cowboys' modern playoff push, a football team from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex will be playing in the final games of the 2022-23 season.

That honor is confirmed to belong to the TCU Horned Frogs, whose thrilling Fiesta Bowl victory on New Year's Eve afforded them entry to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday. They'll face the top-ranked defending champion Georgia Bulldogs at SoFi Stadium in LA for the college game's ultimate prize.

If you thought the Cowboys' "national championship" drought nearing three decades was bad, supporters of the Horned Frogs have gone a literal lifetime without: the latter of two claimed national championships came in 1938, an undefeated season overseen by legendary quarterback Davey O'Brien.

Count Cowboys owner Jerry Jones among the many North Texans who hope to see the Horned Frogs get it done on Monday night.

"This TCU team is no joke," Jones declared in an appearance on The K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan. "It is a sound, sound, sound team that can win this game. Do they have an uphill battle? They do, but should they do it ... frankly it would be one of the sports stories of my time.”

TCU (13-1) is currently listed as a 12.5-point underdog as kickoff looms. They were far from favored in their Fiesta victory over Michigan but took a 42-41 triumph, leading wire-to-wire in their first-ever College Football Playoff showing. They become the seventh different team to partake in the CFP's National Championship Game and the first Big 12 team to appear.

That latter statistic is perhaps a bit surprising with the historic programs of Oklahoma and Texas still lingering in the conference. Jones praised TCU first-year head coach Sonny Dykes for not only breaking through but doing so in the era of instant transfers exacerbated by name, image, likeness benefits.

"The fact that they are here is just magical,” he said. "This is as impressive as it has been … in college football for TCU, a school of that enrollment, school of that stature, stepping up here and having a chance to win the national championship.”

Jones is no doubt used to the work of the Horned Frogs: TCU has played several games at the Cowboys' Arlington home of AT&T Stadium (ironically hosting their sole loss this season in the Big 12 title game against Kansas State) and Pro Bowl returner KaVontae Turpin spent his own college days in Forth Worth before Jones and Dallas management signed him aboard shortly before training camp.

The Cowboys (12-4) will continue their own championship trek on Sunday late afternoon when they take on the Washington Commanders (3:25 p.m. CT, Fox).

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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