Miami defends the belt, 61–0, at home over Rutgers.
AP poll, week 3: Rutgers unranked at Miami No. 1 · No. 1 that week: Clemson. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Miami came in 336 days into reign #253, which began with a win over Florida State, with 8 defenses already behind it; this was its 9th defense. Miami went on to defend it 22 more times before Ohio State took it on January 3, 2003, 818 days after the reign began.
For Rutgers this was its 19th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Miami leads 2–0.
About this game
Miami defeated Rutgers 61-0 on September 8, 2001 in week 3 of the regular season. The defending belt holder Miami kept the belt 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 Box score at ESPN · Game record: College Football Data (id 212512390) · This game in the downloadable dataset