Miami defends the belt, 26–3, on the road at Tennessee.
AP poll, week 12: Miami No. 2 at Tennessee unranked · No. 1 that week: NC State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Miami came in 763 days into reign #253, which began with a win over Florida State, with 27 defenses already behind it; this was its 28th defense. Miami went on to defend it 3 more times before Ohio State took it on January 3, 2003, 818 days after the reign began.
For Tennessee this was its 18th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 7 times before.
This is the only time Miami and Tennessee have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Miami visited Tennessee on November 9, 2002, in week 12 of the regular season. Tennessee won 26-3, but Miami was the belt holder and defeated Tennessee to retain it.
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 223132633) · This game in the downloadable dataset