Notre Dame defends the belt, 48–15, at home over Air Force.
AP poll, week 13: Air Force unranked at Notre Dame No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Notre Dame came in 26 days into reign #154, which began with a win over USC, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. Notre Dame went on to defend it 4 more times before Purdue took it on September 28, 1974, 336 days after the reign began.
For Air Force this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Air Force and Notre Dame have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Notre Dame defended the belt at home against Air Force on November 22, 1973, winning 48-15 to retain the 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 44695) · This game in the downloadable dataset