USC defends the belt, 13–7, on the road at Illinois.
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 285 days into reign #84, which began with a win over Tennessee, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. USC went on to defend it 1 more time before Stanford took it on October 26, 1940, 299 days after the reign began.
For Illinois this was its 5th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Illinois and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
USC traveled to Illinois on October 12, 1940, as the defending belt holder. Illinois won the game 13-7, but USC retained the belt as the last team to have held it prior to this matchup.
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 23791) · This game in the downloadable dataset