Penn State defends the belt, 17–15, at home over Maryland.
AP poll, week 11: Maryland unranked at Penn State No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Penn State came in 14 days into reign #196, which began with a win over Alabama, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Penn State went on to defend it 4 more times before Alabama took it on September 12, 1987, 322 days after the reign began.
For Maryland this was its 8th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Maryland and Penn State have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Penn State defended the belt on November 8, 1986, defeating Maryland 17-15 at home in a regular season week 11 matchup.
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 54506) · This game in the downloadable dataset