USC defends the belt, 48–0, on the road at Iowa.
AP poll, week 5: USC No. 4 at Iowa unranked · No. 1 that week: Arkansas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 268 days into reign #141, which began with a win over Michigan, 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 10, 1970, 282 days after the reign began.
For Iowa this was its 5th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Iowa and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
USC traveled to Iowa on September 26, 1970, as the defending belt holder. Iowa won the game 48-0, but since USC was the belt holder, the loss did not result in a belt change. USC retained the belt despite the defeat.
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 41971) · This game in the downloadable dataset