USC defends the belt, 21–7, on the road at Texas Tech.
AP poll, week 2: USC No. 1 at Texas Tech unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 301 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. USC went on to defend it 19 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For Texas Tech this was its 4th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Texas Tech and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
USC visited Texas Tech on September 8, 1979, in week 2 of the regular season. Texas Tech won 21-7. As the belt's defending champion, USC retained the belt with the victory.
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 48883) · This game in the downloadable dataset