Tennessee takes the belt, 29–28, at home over Clemson.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Tennessee took the belt here, ending Clemson’s run of 7 days and 0 defenses (reign #157) and starting reign #158. It lasted 329 days and 6 defenses, until UCLA took it on September 20, 1975.
For Tennessee this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 6 times before — and it took it back here.
This is the only time Clemson and Tennessee have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
On October 26, 1974, Tennessee defeated Clemson 29-28 in Knoxville during week 8 of the regular season. With this one-point victory on the field, Tennessee took possession of the College Football Belt from Clemson.
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 45234) · This game in the downloadable dataset