Washington defends the belt, 35–7, at home over Houston.
AP poll, week 5: Houston unranked at Washington No. 6 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Washington came in 7 days into reign #187, which began with a win over Michigan, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Washington went on to defend it 6 more times before USC took it on November 10, 1984, 56 days after the reign began.
For Houston this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 8 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Houston and Washington have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Washington defeated Houston 35-7 on September 22, 1984, in week 5 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Washington retained the belt 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 52854) · This game in the downloadable dataset