Washington defends the belt, 30–23, on the road at Washington State.
AP poll, week 13: Washington No. 15 at Washington State unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Washington came in 7 days into reign #168, which began with a win over USC, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. It was the last defense: Michigan took the belt in the very next belt game, on January 1, 1981.
For Washington State this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the first of 4 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Washington leads 3–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Washington State hosted Washington on November 22, 1980, in week 13 of the regular season. Washington won 30-23 and 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 50436) · This game in the downloadable dataset