USC defends the belt, 24–17, on the road at Washington.
AP poll, week 11: USC No. 4 at Washington No. 16 · No. 1 that week: Pittsburgh. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 364 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 13 defenses already behind it; this was its 14th defense. USC went on to defend it 10 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For Washington this was its 7th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the 3rd of 9 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 2–0; all-time USC leads 6–3. Every meeting →
About this game
USC traveled to Washington on November 10, 1979, as the defending belt holder. Washington won the game 24-17, but USC retained the belt.
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 49512) · This game in the downloadable dataset