Arizona defends the belt, 25–10, on the road at New Mexico.
AP poll, week 4: Arizona No. 18 at New Mexico unranked · No. 1 that week: Pittsburgh. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Arizona came in 7 days into reign #212, which began with a win over Illinois, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Arizona went on to defend it 1 more time before California took it on September 29, 1990, 21 days after the reign began.
For New Mexico this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Arizona and New Mexico have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Arizona visited New Mexico on September 15, 1990, in a regular season week 4 matchup. New Mexico won 25-10, but Arizona was the belt holder coming in and retained the belt despite the loss.
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 56640) · This game in the downloadable dataset