Florida State takes the belt, 24–21, on the road at Clemson.
AP poll, week 4: Florida State No. 10 at Clemson No. 3 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Florida State took the belt here, ending Clemson’s run of 260 days and 2 defenses (reign #203) and starting reign #204. It lasted 350 days and 9 defenses, until Southern Miss took it on September 2, 1989.
For Florida State this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt — and this was the day it took it.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Florida State leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Florida State visited Clemson on September 17, 1988, in a week 4 regular season game. Clemson led 21-24 but Florida State won the game, taking the belt from Clemson by virtue of the victory 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 55393) · This game in the downloadable dataset