The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is considered one of the most significant 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 contest 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 on the final series; thus, the match ended in a 10–10 tie. Notre Dame went on to acquire or share the national title in two polls (including both AP and UPI); Michigan State won or shared in three minor surveys, and Alabama, who ended with the only undefeated and untied album, won 2 small surveys.
Notre Dame, which had last won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), rated No. 1 both the AP and Coaches’ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who had finished the 1965 year No. 1 in the UPI Coaches’ survey, but had been upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the past calendar year, entered the match ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two years before had been snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had history and home-field advantage in their side. This was the first time in 20 years that a school football matchup was awarded the”Game of the Century” label by the national press, and ABC had the country’s viewers in its clasp, with equal parts Notre Dame lovers and Michigan State fans. This was the tenth time in the 30-year history of the AP poll that the No. 1 group played with the No. 2 team. The Spartans had conquered Notre Dame the previous year 12–3 holding Notre Dame to minus-12 yards rushing.
A fortuitous quirk in scheduling attracted these two teams together late in the season. When the 1966 schedules were drawn up, they weren’t even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had only nine games scheduled (even though they had been permitted to have eight ) while Notre Dame was initially scheduled to play with Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. However, in 1960, the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish from their schedule, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was accessible and agreed to come back to Notre Dame’s schedule in 1965–66.
The game wasn’t shown on TV. Each team has been allotted one nationwide 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 didn’t even want to demonstrate the match anywhere but the regional area, but pressure from the West Coast and the South (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC air the game on tape delay. ABC relented and blacked out the Michigan State-Notre Dame match in two states (reportedly North Dakota and South Dakota), therefore it could 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 was the most attended match in Michigan State football history at the time (the current record is 80,401 on Sept. 22, 1990 vs. Notre Dame).
Notre Dame was coached by Ara Parseghian and Michigan State was coached by Duffy Daugherty, both school legends.
A lot of the ABC telecast footage resides. The second half exists 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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