Tennessee takes the belt, 23–3, at home over Rice.
AP poll, week 4: Rice unranked at Tennessee No. 8 · No. 1 that week: Arkansas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Tennessee took the belt here, ending Rice’s run of 7 days and 0 defenses (reign #130) and starting reign #131. It lasted 7 days and 0 defenses, until Georgia Tech took it on October 8, 1966.
For Tennessee this was its 10th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before — and it took it back here.
This is the only time Rice and Tennessee have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Tennessee defeated Rice 23-3 on October 1, 1966, in the fourth week of the regular season. With this victory on the field, Tennessee took possession of the College Football Belt from Rice.
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 39405) · This game in the downloadable dataset