Nebraska defends the belt, 56–26, at home over Kansas State.
AP poll, week 7: Kansas State No. 17 at Nebraska No. 3 · No. 1 that week: North Carolina. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Nebraska came in 14 days into reign #248, which began with a win over Washington, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Nebraska went on to defend it 14 more times before Texas A&M took it on October 10, 1998, 385 days after the reign began.
For Kansas State this was its 2nd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Kansas State and Nebraska have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Nebraska defended the belt at home against Kansas State on October 4, 1997, winning 56-26 in week 7 of the regular season. The victory allowed Nebraska 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 61305) · This game in the downloadable dataset