Nebraska defends the belt, 24–3, on the road at California.
AP poll, week 3: Nebraska No. 3 at California unranked · No. 1 that week: NC State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Nebraska came in 357 days into reign #248, which began with a win over Washington, with 12 defenses already behind it; this was its 13th defense. Nebraska went on to defend it 2 more times before Texas A&M took it on October 10, 1998, 385 days after the reign began.
For California this was its 15th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
This is the only time California and Nebraska have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Nebraska defended the belt on September 12, 1998, in week 3 of the regular season, traveling to California. The Cornhuskers won 24-3, retaining the championship belt.
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 61801) · This game in the downloadable dataset