USC defends the belt, 14–6, at a neutral site over Michigan.
AP poll, week 13: Michigan No. 2 at USC No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 42 days into reign #162, which began with a win over UCLA, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. USC went on to defend it 4 more times before Alabama took it on October 8, 1977, 322 days after the reign began.
For Michigan this was its 17th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 3 times before.
It was the 2nd of 4 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 1–0; all-time USC leads 4–0. Every meeting →
About this game
USC defended the belt on January 1, 1977, defeating Michigan 14-6 in a postseason matchup played at a neutral site. The victory allowed USC 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 47150) · This game in the downloadable dataset