Texas defends the belt, 38–11, at a neutral site over Mississippi State.
AP poll, week 15: Mississippi State No. 25 at Texas No. 20 · No. 1 that week: Wisconsin. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Texas came in 35 days into reign #250, which began with a win over Texas A&M, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. It was the last defense: NC State took the belt in the very next belt game, on August 28, 1999.
For Mississippi State this was its 16th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Texas leads 2–0.
About this game
Texas defeated Mississippi State 38-11 on January 1, 1999, in a neutral-site matchup. As the defending belt holder, Texas retained the championship 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 62378) · This game in the downloadable dataset