Florida State defends the belt, 51–23, at home over Duke.
AP poll, week 6: Duke unranked at Florida State No. 1 · No. 1 that week: Michigan State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Florida State came in 14 days into reign #252, which began with a win over NC State, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Florida State went on to defend it 12 more times before Miami took it on October 7, 2000, 385 days after the reign began.
For Duke this was its 8th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.
This is the only time Duke and Florida State have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Florida State defeated Duke 51-23 on October 2, 1999, in week 6 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Florida State 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 62626) · This game in the downloadable dataset