USC takes the belt, 14–0, at a neutral site over Tennessee.
AP poll, week 8: Tennessee No. 2 at USC No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Texas A&M. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC took the belt here, ending Tennessee’s run of 450 days and 18 defenses (reign #83) and starting reign #84. It lasted 299 days and 4 defenses, until Stanford took it on October 26, 1940.
For USC this was its 4th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before — and it took it back here.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time USC leads 2–0.
About this game
On January 1, 1940, USC defeated Tennessee 14-0 in a postseason matchup played at a neutral site. With this victory, USC took the College Football Belt from Tennessee.
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 23581) · This game in the downloadable dataset