South Carolina defends the belt, 47–14, at home over East Carolina.
Where this game sits in the lineage
South Carolina came in 7 days into reign #208, which began with a win over Georgia, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. South Carolina went on to defend it 1 more time before NC State took it on October 28, 1989, 28 days after the reign began.
For East Carolina this was its 3rd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time East Carolina and South Carolina have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
South Carolina defended the belt at home against East Carolina on October 7, 1989, winning 47-14 to retain the lineal championship.
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 56186) · This game in the downloadable dataset