Michigan defends the belt, 41–7, at home over Tulane.
AP poll, week 4: Tulane No. 18 at Michigan No. 8 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan came in 7 days into reign #151, which began with a win over UCLA, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Michigan went on to defend it 7 more times before Ohio State took it on November 25, 1972, 63 days after the reign began.
For Tulane this was its 14th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
This is the only time Michigan and Tulane have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Michigan defeated visiting Tulane 41-7 on September 30, 1972 in a regular season matchup. As the belt's defending holder, Michigan retained the championship with the victory.
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 43455) · This game in the downloadable dataset