Washington takes the belt, 42–20, on the road at BYU.
AP poll, week 3: Washington No. 4 at BYU No. 19 · No. 1 that week: North Carolina. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Washington took the belt here, ending BYU’s run of 322 days and 7 defenses (reign #246) and starting reign #247. It lasted 14 days and 1 defense, until Nebraska took it on September 20, 1997.
For Washington this was its 16th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 9 times before — and it took it back here.
This is the only time BYU and Washington have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Washington visited BYU on September 6, 1997, in week 3 of the regular season. BYU won 42-20. With this victory, Washington took the College Football Belt from BYU.
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 61124) · This game in the downloadable dataset