USC takes the belt, 24–14, on the road at Alabama.
AP poll, week 4: USC No. 3 at Alabama No. 7 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC took the belt here, ending Alabama’s run of 350 days and 9 defenses (reign #163) and starting reign #164. It lasted 21 days and 1 defense, until Arizona State took it on October 14, 1978.
For USC this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 5 times before — and it took it back here.
It was the 3rd of 4 belt games between the two; going in, the series stood 1–1; all-time it is 2–2. Every meeting →
About this game
On September 23, 1978, USC visited Alabama and defeated the belt holder 24-14. With this victory on the field, USC took the College Football Belt from Alabama.
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 48202) · This game in the downloadable dataset