Penn State defends the belt, 45–19, at home over Bowling Green.
AP poll, week 2: Bowling Green unranked at Penn State No. 11 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Penn State came in 315 days into reign #196, which began with a win over Alabama, with 5 defenses already behind it; this was its 6th defense. It was the last defense: Alabama took the belt in the very next belt game, on September 12, 1987.
For Bowling Green this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Bowling Green and Penn State have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Penn State defended the belt against visiting Bowling Green on September 5, 1987, winning 45-19 to retain the 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 54675) · This game in the downloadable dataset