Alabama defends the belt, 37–0, at home over Memphis.
AP poll, week 7: Memphis unranked at Alabama No. 2 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama came in 287 days into reign #195, which began with a win over USC, with 5 defenses already behind it; this was its 6th defense. Alabama went on to defend it 1 more time before Penn State took it on October 25, 1986, 301 days after the reign began.
For Memphis this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Alabama and Memphis have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Alabama defended the belt on October 11, 1986, defeating visiting Memphis 37-0 in a Week 7 regular season matchup. The shutout victory allowed Alabama 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 54274) · This game in the downloadable dataset