Alabama takes the belt, 21–20, on the road at USC.
AP poll, week 6: Alabama No. 4 at USC No. 6 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama took the belt here, ending USC’s run of 322 days and 6 defenses (reign #162) and starting reign #163. It lasted 350 days and 9 defenses, until USC took it on September 23, 1978.
For Alabama this was its 13th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before — and it took it back here.
It was the 2nd of 4 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 1–0; all-time it is 2–2. Every meeting →
About this game
Alabama traveled to USC on October 8, 1977, and defeated the Trojans 21-20 in a week 6 regular season matchup. With the victory, Alabama took the College Football Belt from USC.
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 47472) · This game in the downloadable dataset