USC defends the belt, 27–10, on the road at Missouri.
AP poll, week 2: USC No. 2 at Missouri unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 294 days into reign #162, which began with a win over UCLA, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. USC went on to defend it 3 more times before Alabama took it on October 8, 1977, 322 days after the reign began.
For Missouri this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Missouri and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
USC visited Missouri on September 10, 1977, in a week 2 regular season matchup. Missouri won 27-10. USC was the belt holder coming into the game and retained the belt with the victory.
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 47223) · This game in the downloadable dataset