UCLA defends the belt, 37–9, at home over Arizona.
AP poll, week 3: Arizona unranked at UCLA No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
UCLA came in 261 days into reign #161, which began with a win over Ohio State, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. UCLA went on to defend it 8 more times before USC took it on November 20, 1976, 324 days after the reign began.
For Arizona this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time UCLA leads 3–0. Every meeting →
About this game
UCLA hosted Arizona on September 18, 1976, in week 3 of the regular season. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats 37-9, retaining the College Football Belt.
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 46491) · This game in the downloadable dataset