Syracuse defends the belt, 10–9, on the road at Nebraska.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Syracuse came in 26 days into reign #39, which began with a win over Brown, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. Syracuse went on to defend it 3 more times before Michigan took it on November 16, 1918, 378 days after the reign began.
For Nebraska this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Syracuse leads 2–0.
About this game
Syracuse traveled to Nebraska on November 29, 1917, in week 12 of the regular season. Syracuse won 10-9, retaining the college football belt.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 10218) · This game in the downloadable dataset