Michigan defends the belt, 35–7, at home over Navy.
AP poll, week 5: Navy unranked at Michigan No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan came in 14 days into reign #151, which began with a win over UCLA, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Michigan went on to defend it 6 more times before Ohio State took it on November 25, 1972, 63 days after the reign began.
For Navy this was its 16th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 5 times before.
It was the 2nd of 2 belt games between the two; going in, Navy led the belt series 1–0; all-time it is 1–1.
About this game
Michigan defended the Belt at home against Navy on October 7, 1972, winning 35-7 in week 5 of the regular season. The victory allowed Michigan to retain the lineal championship.
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 43526) · This game in the downloadable dataset