Arkansas State defends the belt, 14–7, on the road at Tennessee Tech.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Arkansas State came in 7 days into reign #108, which began with a win over Memphis, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Arkansas State went on to defend it 3 more times before Mississippi State took it on October 2, 1954, 329 days after the reign began.
For Tennessee Tech this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t; this remains its only belt game.
This is the only time Arkansas State and Tennessee Tech have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Arkansas State visited Tennessee Tech on November 14, 1953, in week 9 of the regular season. Tennessee Tech won 14-7, but Arkansas State held onto the belt as the defending champion.
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 63876) · This game in the downloadable dataset