Arizona State takes the belt, 20–7, at home over USC.
AP poll, week 7: USC No. 7 at Arizona State No. 14 · No. 1 that week: Navy. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Arizona State took the belt here, ending USC’s run of 21 days and 1 defense (reign #164) and starting reign #165. It lasted 14 days and 0 defenses, until Washington took it on October 28, 1978.
For Arizona State this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt — and this was the day it took it.
It was the first of 5 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time USC leads 3–2. Every meeting →
About this game
On October 14, 1978, Arizona State defeated USC 20-7 at home in a regular season matchup. With this victory, Arizona State took possession of 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 48363) · This game in the downloadable dataset