Minnesota takes the belt, 12–10, on the road at Iowa.
AP poll, week 8: Minnesota unranked at Iowa No. 6 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Minnesota took the belt here, ending Iowa’s run of 28 days and 3 defenses (reign #172) and starting reign #173. It lasted 7 days and 0 defenses, until Michigan took it on October 31, 1981.
For Minnesota this was its 10th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt — and this was the day it took it.
This is the only time Iowa and Minnesota have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Minnesota visited Iowa on October 24, 1981, in a regular season week 8 matchup. Iowa held the belt entering the game but fell 10-12 to the visiting Golden Gophers. With the victory, Minnesota claimed the College Football Belt from Iowa.
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 50944) · This game in the downloadable dataset