UCLA takes the belt, 20–17, at home over Nebraska.
AP poll, week 1: Nebraska No. 1 at UCLA unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
UCLA took the belt here, ending Nebraska’s run of 252 days and 0 defenses (reign #149) and starting reign #150. It lasted 14 days and 1 defense, until Michigan took it on September 23, 1972.
For UCLA this was its 4th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt — and this was the day it took it.
This is the only time Nebraska and UCLA have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Nebraska visited UCLA on September 9, 1972, in the season opener for both teams. UCLA won 20-17, taking the college football belt from Nebraska on the field.
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 43298) · This game in the downloadable dataset