The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is considered among the greatest and most controversial games in college football history played between Michigan State and Notre Dame. The game has been played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the contest 9–0 ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and ranked No. 1. Notre Dame elected to not try for a score over the series the match ended at a 10–10 tie. Notre Dame went on to win or share the national title in fourteen polls (such as the AP and UPI); Michigan State shared or won in three small polls, and Alabama, who ended with all the only undefeated and untied record, won 2 small polls.
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’d completed the 1965 year No. 1 at the UPI Coaches’ poll, 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 edge on their side. This was the first time in 20 years a school football matchup was given the”Game of the Century” tag by the national press, and ABC had the country’s audiences in its clasp, with equal portions Notre Dame fans and Michigan State fans. It was the tenth time in the 30-year history of the AP poll the No. 1 team 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 brought these two teams together late in the season. When the 1966 programs were drawn up they weren’t even supposed to meet. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (although they were allowed to have ten) while Notre Dame was originally 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 game wasn’t shown live on TV. Each team has been allotted one nationwide television appearance and also two regional television appearances every year. Notre Dame had utilized their national TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives did not even want to demonstrate the match everywhere but the regional place, but pressure in 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 (allegedly North Dakota and South Dakota), therefore it might theoretically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time a college 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.
Much 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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