Georgia defends the belt, 24–9, at a neutral site over SMU.
AP poll, week 12: Georgia No. 4 at SMU No. 10 · No. 1 that week: SMU. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Georgia came in 35 days into reign #133, which began with a win over Georgia Tech, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Georgia went on to defend it 3 more times before Ole Miss took it on October 14, 1967, 322 days after the reign began.
For SMU this was its 3rd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 5 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Georgia and SMU have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Georgia, holding the belt, faced SMU on December 31, 1966 in a postseason matchup played at a neutral site. Georgia won 24-9, retaining the belt.
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 39872) · This game in the downloadable dataset