Penn State defends the belt, 34–14, at home over Pittsburgh.
AP poll, week 13: Pittsburgh unranked at Penn State No. 2 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Penn State came in 28 days into reign #196, which began with a win over Alabama, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. Penn State went on to defend it 2 more times before Alabama took it on September 12, 1987, 322 days after the reign began.
For Pittsburgh this was its 7th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Penn State leads 2–0.
About this game
Penn State defended the belt at home against Pittsburgh on November 22, 1986, winning 34-14 in week 13 of the regular season.
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 54597) · This game in the downloadable dataset