Washington takes the belt, 20–10, on the road at USC.
AP poll, week 12: Washington No. 16 at USC No. 12 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Washington took the belt here, ending USC’s run of 735 days and 24 defenses (reign #167) and starting reign #168. It lasted 47 days and 1 defense, until Michigan took it on January 1, 1981.
For Washington this was its 8th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before — and it took it back here.
It was the 4th of 9 belt games between the two; going in, USC led the belt series 3–0; all-time USC leads 6–3. Every meeting →
About this game
Washington visited USC on November 15, 1980, in a regular season week 12 matchup. USC won the game 20-10, but Washington took the belt from USC by winning 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 50376) · This game in the downloadable dataset