USC defends the belt, 60–7, at home over California.
AP poll, week 10: California unranked at USC No. 4 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 721 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 22 defenses already behind it; this was its 23rd defense. USC went on to defend it 1 more time before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For California this was its 8th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the 4th of 6 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 3–0; all-time USC leads 6–0. Every meeting →
About this game
USC, defending the belt, hosted California on November 1, 1980, in week 10 of the regular season. The Trojans dominated 60-7 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 50235) · This game in the downloadable dataset