USC defends the belt, 17–16, at a neutral site over Ohio State.
AP poll, week 14: Ohio State No. 1 at USC No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Pittsburgh. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 416 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 15 defenses already behind it; this was its 16th defense. USC went on to defend it 8 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For Ohio State this was its 10th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before.
It was the 3rd of 3 belt games between the two; going in, the series stood 1–1; all-time USC leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
USC, defending the belt, defeated Ohio State 17-16 on January 1, 1980 at a neutral site in a 1979 postseason matchup. With the victory, USC retained the College Football 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 49659) · This game in the downloadable dataset