Michigan defends the belt, 70–21, at home over Illinois.
AP poll, week 10: Illinois unranked at Michigan No. 12 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan came in 7 days into reign #174, which began with a win over Minnesota, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Michigan went on to defend it 1 more time before Ohio State took it on November 21, 1981, 21 days after the reign began.
For Illinois this was its 11th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the 3rd of 3 belt games between the two; going in, the series stood 1–1; all-time Michigan leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Michigan defended the belt at home against Illinois on November 7, 1981, winning 70-21 in week 10 of the regular season. The dominant victory allowed Michigan to retain the lineal championship.
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 51082) · This game in the downloadable dataset