Alabama defends the belt, 35–6, at a neutral site over Ohio State.
AP poll, week 13: Ohio State No. 9 at Alabama No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama came in 86 days into reign #163, which began with a win over USC, with 6 defenses already behind it; this was its 7th defense. Alabama went on to defend it 2 more times before USC took it on September 23, 1978, 350 days after the reign began.
For Ohio State this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Alabama leads 3–0. Every meeting →
About this game
Alabama defended the belt against Ohio State on January 2, 1978, winning 35-6 at a neutral site in a 1977 postseason matchup. The victory allowed Alabama 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 48015) · This game in the downloadable dataset