Florida State defends the belt, 52–17, at home over Florida.
AP poll, week 14: Florida unranked at Florida State No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Arkansas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Florida State came in 70 days into reign #204, which began with a win over Clemson, with 7 defenses already behind it; this was its 8th defense. Florida State went on to defend it 1 more time before Southern Miss took it on September 2, 1989, 350 days after the reign began.
For Florida this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
It was the first of 4 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time it is 2–2. Every meeting →
About this game
Florida State defeated Florida 52-17 on November 26, 1988, in Gainesville. The defending belt holder Florida State retained 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 55883) · This game in the downloadable dataset