Virginia defends the belt, 48–21, on the road at Maryland.
AP poll, week 12: Virginia No. 16 at Maryland unranked · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Virginia came in 14 days into reign #210, which began with a win over NC State, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: Illinois took the belt in the very next belt game, on January 1, 1990.
For Maryland this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Maryland and Virginia have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Virginia traveled to Maryland on November 18, 1989, as the defending belt holder. Maryland won the game 48-21, but Virginia retained the belt as the defending champion.
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 56494) · This game in the downloadable dataset