The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football match is regarded as among the greatest and most controversial games in college football history played between Michigan State and Notre Dame. The game was played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the competition 9–0 and ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and ranked No. 1. Notre Dame elected to not try for a score over the last series. Notre Dame went on to acquire or share the national title in fourteen polls (such as both AP and UPI); Michigan State shared or won in three small polls, and Alabama, who ended with the only undefeated and untied record, won two minor surveys.
Notre Dame, which had won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), rated No. 1 both AP and Coaches’ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who had completed the 1965 season No. 1 at the UPI Coaches’ poll, but was upset by UCLA in the Rose Bowl the past year, entered the match ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two decades before had been snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had background and home-field advantage on their side. This was the very first time in 20 years that a college football matchup was awarded the”Game of the Century” tag by the national media, and ABC had the country’s viewers in its clasp, with equal portions Notre Dame fans and Michigan State fans. This was the tenth time in the 30-year history of this AP poll the No. 1 group played with the No. 2 team. The Spartans had defeated Notre Dame the prior year 12–3 holding Notre Dame to minus-12 yards rushing.
A fortuitous quirk in scheduling attracted these 2 teams together late in the season. When the 1966 programs were drawn up they were not even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (although they had been allowed to have ten) while Notre Dame was initially scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. But in 1960, the Hawkeyes abruptly dropped the Irish from their schedule, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was accessible and agreed to return to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The match wasn’t shown live on national TV. Each group has been allotted one national television appearance and two regional television appearances each season. Notre Dame had used their national TV slot at the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives did not want to demonstrate the game anywhere but the regional area, but pressure from the West Coast and the South (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC atmosphere the game on tape delay. ABC relented and blacked out the Michigan State-Notre Dame match in just two countries (reportedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it might theoretically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time that a school football game was broadcast to Hawaii and also to U.S. troops in Vietnam. [5] The official attendance was announced at 80,011 (111% potential ) and has been the most attended match in Michigan State football history at the time (the present record is 80,401 on Sept. 22, 1990 vs. Notre Dame).
Notre Dame was educated by Ara Parseghian and Michigan State was coached by Duffy Daugherty, both college legends.
Much of the ABC telecast footage resides. The second half is present in its entirety, as do both scoring drives starting in the next quarter (Michigan State’s field goal and Notre Dame’s touchdown).

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