The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is regarded as among the greatest and most controversial games in college football history played between Michigan State and Notre Dame. The match was played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the competition 9–0 ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and rated No. 1. Notre Dame elected to not try to find a score on the last series. Notre Dame went on to acquire or share the national title in fourteen polls (including both AP and UPI); Michigan State won or shared in three minor polls, and Alabama, who ended with the only undefeated and untied record, won 2 minor polls.
Notre Dame, which had won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), ranked No. 1 both the AP and Coaches’ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who had completed the 1965 season No. 1 in the UPI Coaches’ survey, but had been upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the previous 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, although the Spartans had history and home-field edge in their side. This was the very first time in 20 years a college football matchup was given the”Game of the Century” tag by the national press, and ABC had the country’s viewers in its clasp, with equal portions Notre Dame lovers and Michigan State fans. This was the tenth time at the 30-year history of the AP poll that the No. 1 team 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 brought these 2 teams together late in the season. When the 1966 programs were first drawn up, they were not even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had only nine matches scheduled (even though they had been permitted to have eight ) while Notre Dame was originally scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. However, in 1960, the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish from their program, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was accessible and agreed to come back to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The match was not shown live on TV. Each group was 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 want to demonstrate the match everywhere 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 game in just two countries (allegedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it could theoretically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time a college football game was broadcast to Hawaii and to U.S. troops in Vietnam. [5] The official attendance was declared at 80,011 (111% potential ) and has been the most attended game 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 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 second quarter (Michigan State’s field goal and Notre Dame’s touchdown).

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