Notre Dame defends the belt, 24–23, at a neutral site over Alabama.
AP poll, week 14: Alabama No. 1 at Notre Dame No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Notre Dame came in 65 days into reign #154, which began with a win over USC, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. Notre Dame went on to defend it 2 more times before Purdue took it on September 28, 1974, 336 days after the reign began.
For Alabama this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before.
It was the first of 4 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time it is 2–2. Every meeting →
About this game
Notre Dame defended the belt against Alabama on December 31, 1973, winning 24-23 in a postseason matchup played at a neutral site. The victory allowed Notre Dame 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 44773) · This game in the downloadable dataset