Mississippi State takes the belt, 26–23, on the road at Southern Miss.
AP poll, week 2: Mississippi State unranked at Southern Miss No. 18 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Mississippi State took the belt here, ending Southern Miss’ run of 7 days and 0 defenses (reign #205) and starting reign #206. It lasted 14 days and 0 defenses, until Georgia took it on September 23, 1989.
For Mississippi State this was its 15th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before — and it took it back here.
This is the only time Mississippi State and Southern Miss have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Mississippi State traveled to Southern Miss on September 9, 1989, for a week 2 regular season game. Southern Miss led 26-23, but Mississippi State scored to win 26-23 and claim the College Football Belt from the home team.
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 55973) · This game in the downloadable dataset