USC defends the belt, 42–23, on the road at Notre Dame.
AP poll, week 8: USC No. 3 at Notre Dame No. 14 · No. 1 that week: Navy. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 343 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 10 defenses already behind it; this was its 11th defense. USC went on to defend it 13 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For Notre Dame this was its 13th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 6 times before.
It was the 6th of 9 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 3–1–1; all-time USC leads 6–2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
USC traveled to Notre Dame on October 20, 1979, as the defending belt holder. Notre Dame won the game 42-23, but the belt stayed with USC, as the belt holder only loses it by falling to an opponent on the field.
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 49310) · This game in the downloadable dataset