Michigan takes the belt, 34–13, on the road at Minnesota.
AP poll, week 9: Michigan No. 15 at Minnesota unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan took the belt here, ending Minnesota’s run of 7 days and 0 defenses (reign #173) and starting reign #174. It lasted 21 days and 2 defenses, until Ohio State took it on November 21, 1981.
For Michigan this was its 21st shot at the belt; it had held the belt 4 times before — and it took it back here.
It was the 2nd of 2 belt games between the two; going in, Michigan led the belt series 1–0; all-time Michigan leads 2–0.
About this game
Michigan visited Minnesota on October 31, 1981, and defeated the host Golden Gophers 34-13. With this victory, Michigan took the College Football Belt from Minnesota.
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 51014) · This game in the downloadable dataset