Miami defends the belt, 56–45, at home over Virginia Tech.
AP poll, week 16: Virginia Tech No. 18 at Miami No. 1 · No. 1 that week: Maryland. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Miami came in 791 days into reign #253, which began with a win over Florida State, with 30 defenses already behind it; this was its 31st defense. It was the last defense: Ohio State took the belt in the very next belt game, on January 3, 2003.
For Virginia Tech this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the 3rd of 4 belt games between the two; going in, Miami led the belt series 2–0; all-time Miami leads 4–0. Every meeting →
About this game
Miami defeated Virginia Tech 56-45 on December 7, 2002, in week 16 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Miami 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 Box score at ESPN · Game record: College Football Data (id 223412390) · This game in the downloadable dataset