Florida State defends the belt, 46–29, at a neutral site over Virginia Tech.
AP poll, week 16: Virginia Tech No. 2 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 108 days into reign #252, which began with a win over NC State, with 8 defenses already behind it; this was its 9th defense. Florida State went on to defend it 5 more times before Miami took it on October 7, 2000, 385 days after the reign began.
For Virginia Tech this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the 2nd of 2 belt games between the two; going in, Florida State led the belt series 1–0; all-time Florida State leads 2–0.
About this game
Florida State defeated Virginia Tech 46-29 on January 4, 2000, in a postseason matchup played at a neutral site. The defending belt holder Florida State retained the belt 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 63067) · This game in the downloadable dataset