One-week wonders

No. 1 Miami — 6 days, 1957

Miami took the belt from Baylor 13–7 on October 5, 1957 at home.

6 days later it was gone: North Carolina won 20–13 on October 11, 1957, and the belt moved on without a single defense. North Carolina would not do much better with it.

It was the 2nd of Miami’s 6 reigns; the longest of them, 2 yrs, 88 days starting in 2000, shows it can be done.

No. 2 Baylor — 6 days, 2015

Baylor took the belt from Oklahoma State 45–35 on November 21, 2015 on the road.

6 days later it was gone: TCU won 28–21 on November 27, 2015, and the belt moved on without a single defense. TCU made more of it: 288 days and 2 defenses.

It was the 6th of Baylor’s 7 reigns; the longest of them, 1 yr, 6 days starting in 2012, shows it can be done.

No. 3 Rutgers — 7 days, 1869

Rutgers came into the belt on November 6, 1869.

7 days later it was gone: Princeton won 8–0 on November 13, 1869, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Princeton made more of it: 7 yrs, 17 days and 10 defenses.

It remains Rutgers’ only reign.

No. 4 Harvard — 7 days, 1882

Harvard took the belt from Princeton 2–1 on November 18, 1882 at home. That ended a Princeton reign of 3 yrs, 355 days and 25 defenses, which makes the week that followed stranger still.

7 days later it was gone: Yale won 1–0 on November 25, 1882, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Yale made more of it: 2 yrs, 361 days and 25 defenses.

It was the 1st of Harvard’s 10 reigns; the longest of them, 2 yrs, 355 days starting in 1912, shows it can be done.

No. 5 Brown — 7 days, 1916

Brown took the belt from Harvard 21–0 on November 18, 1916 on the road.

7 days later it was gone: Colgate won 28–0 on November 25, 1916, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Colgate made more of it: 336 days and 2 defenses.

No. 6 Brown — 7 days, 1917

Brown took the belt from Colgate 7–6 on October 27, 1917 at home. That ended a Colgate reign of 336 days and 2 defenses, which makes the week that followed stranger still.

7 days later it was gone: Syracuse won 6–0 on November 3, 1917, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Syracuse made more of it: 1 yr, 13 days and 7 defenses.

No. 7 Lebanon Valley — 7 days, 1926

Lebanon Valley took the belt from Villanova 30–12 on September 25, 1926 on the road. That ended a Villanova reign of 303 days and 0 defenses, which makes the week that followed stranger still.

7 days later it was gone: Penn State won 35–0 on October 2, 1926, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Penn State made more of it: 14 days and 1 defense.

It remains Lebanon Valley’s only reign.

No. 8 Geneva — 7 days, 1928

Geneva took the belt from Duquesne 7–0 on October 27, 1928 at home.

7 days later it was gone: Grove City won 12–6 on November 3, 1928, and the belt moved on without a single defense. Grove City would not do much better with it.

It remains Geneva’s only reign.

The programs that specialize in it

Nobody has done it more often than Alabama: 4 of its reigns ended at the very next game. Close behind: Michigan (4), USC (4), Clemson (3).

And 16 programs have never held the belt any other way — every reign they have ever had ended the following week: Air Force, Brown, Geneva, Grove City, Kentucky, Lebanon Valley, Maryland, Memphis, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Olympic Club, and 4 more.

What it says about the belt

There is a lesson in all this, and it is not really about the teams. The belt is easier to take than to keep, because taking it asks for one good Saturday and keeping it asks for every Saturday after. The typical reign lasts 35 days — half of them are shorter than that — and the ones on this page are the extreme of a rule that never gives anyone a week off.