Clemson defends the belt, 40–7, at home over Virginia Tech.
AP poll, week 2: Virginia Tech unranked at Clemson No. 4 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Clemson came in 246 days into reign #203, which began with a win over Penn State, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Clemson went on to defend it 1 more time before Florida State took it on September 17, 1988, 260 days after the reign began.
For Virginia Tech this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 4 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Clemson leads 4–0. Every meeting →
About this game
Clemson hosted Virginia Tech on September 3, 1988, in week 2 of the regular season. Clemson won 40-7, maintaining possession of the College Football Belt.
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 55291) · This game in the downloadable dataset