Michigan defends the belt, 28–10, on the road at Purdue.
AP poll, week 11: Michigan No. 11 at Purdue unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan came in 14 days into reign #174, which began with a win over Minnesota, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: Ohio State took the belt in the very next belt game, on November 21, 1981.
For Purdue this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
It was the 2nd of 3 belt games between the two; going in, Michigan led the belt series 1–0; all-time Michigan leads 3–0. Every meeting →
About this game
Michigan traveled to Purdue on November 14, 1981, for a regular season Week 11 matchup. Purdue won 28-10, but Michigan was the belt holder going in and retained it with the victory.
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 51145) · This game in the downloadable dataset