BYU defends the belt, 49–0, at home over Rice.
AP poll, week 12: Rice unranked at BYU No. 12 · No. 1 that week: North Carolina. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
BYU came in 21 days into reign #246, which began with a win over Tulsa, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. BYU went on to defend it 4 more times before Washington took it on September 6, 1997, 322 days after the reign began.
For Rice this was its 7th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
This is the only time BYU and Rice have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
BYU defeated Rice 49-0 on November 9, 1996, in week 12 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, BYU 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 60876) · This game in the downloadable dataset