Alabama defends the belt, 55–6, at home over Louisville.
AP poll, week 8: Louisville unranked at Alabama No. 2 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama came in 14 days into reign #163, which began with a win over USC, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Alabama went on to defend it 7 more times before USC took it on September 23, 1978, 350 days after the reign began.
For Louisville this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Alabama and Louisville have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Alabama, holding the belt, defeated visiting Louisville 55-6 on October 22, 1977, in week 8 of the regular season. With the victory, Alabama retained 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 47617) · This game in the downloadable dataset