Alabama takes the belt, 24–13, on the road at Penn State.
AP poll, week 3: Alabama No. 11 at Penn State No. 20 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Alabama took the belt here, ending Penn State’s run of 322 days and 6 defenses (reign #196) and starting reign #197. It lasted 7 days and 0 defenses, until Florida took it on September 19, 1987.
For Alabama this was its 16th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 6 times before — and it took it back here.
It was the 2nd of 3 belt games between the two; going in, Penn State led the belt series 1–0; all-time Alabama leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Alabama visited Penn State on September 12, 1987, in week 3 of the regular season. Penn State won 24-13, but Alabama took the belt from Penn State by winning on the field.
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 54693) · This game in the downloadable dataset