Alabama defends the belt, 38–20, on the road at Missouri.
AP poll, week 3: Alabama No. 1 at Missouri No. 17 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama came in 343 days into reign #163, which began with a win over USC, with 8 defenses already behind it; this was its 9th defense. It was the last defense: USC took the belt in the very next belt game, on September 23, 1978.
For Missouri this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Alabama and Missouri have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Alabama defended the belt on September 16, 1978, defeating Missouri 38-20 in regular season week 3 play. 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 48082) · This game in the downloadable dataset