Florida State defends the belt, 30–7, at home over Michigan State.
AP poll, week 5: Michigan State unranked at Florida State No. 9 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Florida State came in 7 days into reign #204, which began with a win over Clemson, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Florida State went on to defend it 8 more times before Southern Miss took it on September 2, 1989, 350 days after the reign began.
For Michigan State this was its 10th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Florida State and Michigan State have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Florida State hosted Michigan State on September 24, 1988, in a regular season week 5 matchup. Florida State won 30-7, defending the belt with the victory.
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 55444) · This game in the downloadable dataset