Iowa defends the belt, 9–7, on the road at Michigan.
AP poll, week 7: Iowa No. 12 at Michigan No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Iowa came in 21 days into reign #172, which began with a win over UCLA, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. It was the last defense: Minnesota took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 24, 1981.
For Michigan this was its 20th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before.
It was the 2nd of 2 belt games between the two; going in, Michigan led the belt series 1–0; all-time it is 1–1.
About this game
Iowa traveled to Michigan on October 17, 1981, in week 7 of the regular season as the belt holder. Iowa won 9-7, retaining 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 50870) · This game in the downloadable dataset