[Sam Leopold]

Phogge got it; the answer is Oregon.  In the last 50 years they have played in thirteen Belt games, winning none.  They've had three particularly good chances:
* A home game against U$C in 1980 that ended in a 7-7 tie.
* The title game against Auburn in the 2010-11 season lost on a FG in the final seconds.
* Perhaps most stingingly, the Alamo Bowl against TCU on 1/2/2016 where they were up 31-0 at the half, lost their starting QB to an injury and lost the game in OT.

Some of the others:
* Washington State has one reign from upsetting UW in the Apple Cup in 1982 and held the Belt through the 1983 offseason.
* Oregon State has a one-time reign in 1985 from winning at Washington, one of the biggest upsets in conference history.
* Colorado got their one reign from a win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl in the 1990-91 season.
* Stanford itself has one reign from a win at Ohio State in 1982 before passing it on two weeks later with a loss to ASU on the road.

BTW, Sam, someone has traced the College Belt back to the first football game, when Rutgers beat Princeton on 11/06/1869.  If you use the expanded college belt, then our Pac-12 non-belt-holder has actually won the belt twice, in Nov 1931 and again in Nov 1933.

BC

I discovered this myself recently, it appears to be part of a system called the Hatch Rankings.  Since the original site went offline some time in 2017-18, they are now the one-stop online shop for keeping track of the current holder.

[Sam Leopold]

Phogge got it; the answer is Oregon.  In the last 50 years they have played in thirteen Belt games, winning none.  They've had three particularly good chances:
* A home game against U$C in 1980 that ended in a 7-7 tie.
* The title game against Auburn in the 2010-11 season lost on a FG in the final seconds.
* Perhaps most stingingly, the Alamo Bowl against TCU on 1/2/2016 where they were up 31-0 at the half, lost their starting QB to an injury and lost the game in OT.

Some of the others:
* Washington State has one reign from upsetting UW in the Apple Cup in 1982 and held the Belt through the 1983 offseason.
* Oregon State has a one-time reign in 1985 from winning at Washington, one of the biggest upsets in conference history.
* Colorado got their one reign from a win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl in the 1990-91 season.
* Stanford itself has one reign from a win at Ohio State in 1982 before passing it on two weeks later with a loss to ASU on the road.

BTW, Sam, someone has traced the College Belt back to the first football game, when Rutgers beat Princeton on 11/06/1869.  If you use the expanded college belt, then our Pac-12 non-belt-holder has actually won the belt twice, in Nov 1931 and again in Nov 1933.

BC

I discovered this myself recently, it appears to be part of a system called the Hatch Rankings.  Since the original site went offline some time in 2017-18, they are now the one-stop online shop for keeping track of the current holder.