USC defends the belt, 17–12, on the road at LSU.
AP poll, week 5: USC No. 1 at LSU No. 17 · No. 1 that week: Arkansas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 322 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 7 defenses already behind it; this was its 8th defense. USC went on to defend it 16 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For LSU this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 3 times before.
This is the only time LSU and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
USC visited LSU on September 29, 1979, in a regular season week 5 matchup. LSU won 17-12, but USC was the belt holder entering the game and 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 49097) · This game in the downloadable dataset