Penn State defends the belt, 24–19, on the road at Notre Dame.
AP poll, week 12: Penn State No. 2 at Notre Dame unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Penn State came in 21 days into reign #196, which began with a win over Alabama, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. Penn State went on to defend it 3 more times before Alabama took it on September 12, 1987, 322 days after the reign began.
For Notre Dame this was its 15th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 6 times before.
It was the 2nd of 3 belt games between the two; going in, Notre Dame led the belt series 1–0; all-time Penn State leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Penn State visited Notre Dame on November 15, 1986, in week 12 of the regular season. Notre Dame won 24-19, but Penn State was the belt holder 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 54558) · This game in the downloadable dataset