Florida defends the belt, 24–17, at home over East Carolina.
AP poll, week 9: East Carolina unranked at Florida No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Texas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Florida came in 21 days into reign #183, which began with a win over LSU, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: Auburn took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 29, 1983.
For East Carolina this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time East Carolina and Florida have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Florida defeated East Carolina 24-17 on October 22, 1983, in a regular season matchup during week 9. The belt-holding Gators successfully defended their title 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 52364) · This game in the downloadable dataset