Lafayette defends the belt, 38–0, at home over Franklin & Marshall.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Lafayette came in 21 days into reign #14, which began with a win over Pennsylvania, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. Lafayette went on to defend it 8 more times before Pennsylvania took it on October 23, 1897, 364 days after the reign began.
For Franklin & Marshall this was its 4th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 10 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Lafayette leads 2–0.
About this game
Lafayette defeated Franklin & Marshall 38-0 on November 14, 1896, in week 10 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Lafayette retained the championship with the victory.
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 1848) · This game in the downloadable dataset