1966 college football season The 1966 college football season was marked by controversy as the year of " The Tie " , a November 19 game between the two top - ranked teams , Michigan State and Notre Dame . Neither team participated in a post - season bowl game . At the same time , 1966 was the first year that the professional football season would end with a Super Bowl . During the 20th Century , the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as " Division I - A " . The NCAA Football Guide , however , did note an " unofficial national champion " based on the top ranked teams in the " wire service " ( AP and UPI ) polls . The " writers ' poll " by Associated Press ( AP ) was the most popular , followed by the " coaches ' poll " by United Press International ) ( UPI ) . In 1966 , both services issued their final polls at the close of the regular season , but before teams competed in bowl games . The Associated Press presented the " AP Trophy " to the winner . The AP poll in 1966 consisted of the votes of as many as 63 sportswriters , though not all of them voted in every poll . Those who cast votes would give their opinion of the ten best teams . Under a point system of 10 points for first place , 9 for second , etc . , the " overall " ranking was determined . In the preseason poll for 1966 , Alabama was slightly ahead of Michigan State in first place votes ( 15 vs . 12 ) and points . The American Broadcasting Company began showing college football in color this season . By the NCAA rules , only 8 national and 5 regional telecasts were allowed during the season . September . In the preseason poll released on September 12 , 1966 , the top six teams were from different conferences . First place was the defending champion Alabama Crimson Tide ( SEC ) , followed by defending UPI champ Michigan State ( Big Ten ) , Nebraska ( Big Eight ) , UCLA ( Pacific 8 ) , Arkansas ( SWC ) and Notre Dame ( independent ) . September 17 # 2 Michigan State beat North Carolina State 28 - 10 at home . # 3 Nebraska beat Texas Christian ( TCU ) 14 - 10 . In Los Angeles , # 4 UCLA crushed the Pittsburgh Panthers , 57 - 14 . At a game in Little Rock , # 5 Arkansas beat visiting Oklahoma State 14 - 10 , but fell to 6th place in the next poll , while # 9 USC won at Texas , 10 - 6 . Alabama had not yet begun its season . The poll was 1 . Michigan State 2 . UCLA 3 . Alabama 4 . Nebraska and 5 . USC . September 24 # 1 Michigan State beat Penn State 42 - 8 at home in East Lansing . # 2 UCLA won 31 - 12 at Syracuse , # 3 Alabama easily handled Louisiana Tech 34 - 0 , and # 4 Nebraska won over Utah State 28 - 7 but would drop to sixth . The Cornhuskers were replaced by # 8 Notre Dame , which had beaten # 7 Purdue at home , 26 - 14 . # 5 USC beat Wisconsin in Los Angeles 38 - 3 . In the poll , it was 1 . Michigan State 2 . UCLA 3 . Alabama 4 . Notre Dame and 5 . USC . October . October 1 # 1 Michigan State won at Illinois , 26 - 10 . # 2 UCLA hosted Missouri and won , 24 - 15 . # 3 Alabama beat Mississippi 17 - 7 , while # 4 Notre Dame won 35 - 7 at Northwestern and thus jumped over Alabama to # 3 . # 5 USC played Oregon State in a game at Portland , winning 21 - 0 , but it dropped from fifth to sixth . Its place was taken by # 7 Arkansas , which shut out Texas Christian by the same 21 - 0 score . The next poll was 1 . Michigan State 2 . UCLA 3 . Notre Dame 4 . Alabama 5 . Arkansas . All of the Top Ten teams remained unbeaten ( the next five were USC , Nebraska , Tennessee , Georgia Tech and Florida October 8 # 1 Michigan State beat Michigan at home , 20 - 7 . # 2 UCLA won in Houston against Rice , 27 - 24 . # 3 Notre Dame and # 4 Alabama registered shutouts , beating Army ( 35 - 0 ) and Clemson ( 26 - 0 ) , respectively . Thus , Notre Dame and Alabama jumped over UCLA . # 5 Arkansas was itself shut out , 7 - 0 , by the Baylor Bears . They were replaced at fifth place by # 6 USC which won 17 - 14 at Washington . # 7 Nebraska beat the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison , 31 - 3 . In a matchup between # 9 Georgia Tech and # 8 Tennessee in Atlanta , Tech won 6 - 3 . With two unbeatens gone , the eight remaining in the poll were 1 . Michigan State 2 . Notre Dame 3 . Alabama 4 . UCLA 5 . USC 6 . Nebraska 7 . Georgia Tech 8 . Florida October 15 # 1 Michigan State narrowly beat Ohio State in Columbus , 11 - 8 , while # 2 Notre Dame held North Carolina scoreless at home , 32 - 0 , which was enough for them to trade places in the next poll . Likewise , # 3 Alabama edged Tennessee 11 - 10 while # 4 UCLA overwhelmed Penn State 49 - 11 to jump back ahead of Alabama . UCLA ' s Los Angeles rival , # 5 USC , beat Stanford 21 - 7 . # 6 Nebraska won 21 - 10 over Kansas State . # 7 Georgia Tech met Auburn in Birmingham , winning 17 - 3 to stay unbeaten , and # 8 Florida won at North Carolina State , 17 - 10 . Oklahoma , which was scheduled to face Notre Dame , beat Kansas 35 - 0 , while Purdue ( set to face Michigan State ) beat Michigan 22 - 21 in Ann Arbor . Purdue was the only team with a loss in the next poll : 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Michigan State 3 . UCLA 4 . Alabama 5 . USC 6 . Georgia Tech 7 . Nebraska 8 . Florida 9 . Purdue 10 . Oklahoma On October 22 , # 1 Notre Dame met # 10 Oklahoma at Norman and beat them , 38 - 0 . # 2 Michigan State hosted # 9 Purdue and won 41 - 20 , which would give State the Big Ten crown . Because of a Big Ten rule barring two straight Rose Bowl appearances , Purdue went to Pasadena instead of the Spartans . # 3 UCLA won 28 - 15 at California in Berkeley , while in Birmingham , # 4 Alabama handled Vanderbilt 42 - 6 and # 5 USC beat visiting Clemson 30 - 0 . It was # 6 Georgia Tech over Tulane , 35 - 17 , and # 7 Nebraska won 21 - 19 at Colorado in a game that would determine the Big 8 championship . Arkansas returned to the Top Ten with a 41 - 0 triumph over Wichita State at Little Rock and Wyoming ( which had gone 6 - 0 - 0 with a 35 - 10 win over Utah State ) reached # 10 . The next poll had nine unbeaten teams , and Arkansas : 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Michigan State 3 . UCLA 4 . Alabama 5 . USC 6 . Ga Tech 7 . Florida 8 . Nebraska 9 . Arkansas 5 - 1 10 . Wyoming October 29 Week Eight featured games in large cities . In a Friday night game in Miami , # 5 USC lost 10 - 7 to the Hurricanes . # 1 Notre Dame met Navy in a game at Philadelphia and won 31 - 7 . # 2 Michigan State traveled to metropolitan Chicago ( Evanston ) to beat Northwestern 22 - 0 . In Los Angeles , # 3 UCLA beat the Air Force Academy 38 - 13 . # 4 Alabama beat Mississippi State 27 - 14 in Tuscaloosa . Three other teams won again to go 7 - 0 - 0 ( # 6 Georgia Tech over Duke 48 - 7 , # 7 Florida over Auburn 30 - 27 and # 8 Nebraska 35 - 0 over Missouri ) . # 9 Arkansas won 34 - 0 over Texas A & M , and # 10 Wyoming ' s Top Ten ranking ended with its first loss , 12 - 10 at Colorado State . The remaining unbeatens in the Halloween rankings were 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Michigan State 3 . UCLA 4 . Alabama 5 . Georgia Tech 6 . Nebraska and 7 . Florida . November . November 5 # 1 Notre Dame beat Pittsburgh at home , 40 - 0 . # 2 Michigan State beat Iowa at home , 56 - 7 . In Seattle , The # 3 UCLA Bruins suffered their first loss , falling 16 - 3 at Washington . # 4 Alabama defeated LSU 21 - 0 at Birmingham . # 5 Georgia Tech got by Virginia in Atlanta , 14 - 13 . # 6 Nebraska , which had won 24 - 13 at Kansas , entered the Top Five , which contained the nation ' s five unbeaten major teams : 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Michigan State 3 . Alabama 4 . Nebraska 5 . Georgia Tech . On November 12 , # 1 Notre Dame crushed Duke 64 - 0 at home . # 2 Michigan State won at Indiana 37 - 19 . # 3 Alabama over South Carolina 24 - 0 at Tuscaloosa for its third straight shutout win . # 4 Nebraska won 21 - 6 over Oklahoma State , and # 5 Georgia Tech beat Penn State 21 - 0 . The Top Five remained the same , as # 1 Notre Dame and # 2 Michigan State prepared to meet on State ' s turf in East Lansing . November 19 , In " the game of the century " # 1 Notre Dame played # 2 Michigan State to a 10 - 10 tie in East Lansing . The Spartans closed their season with a 9 - 0 - 1 record and no postseason game , since they had played the 1965 Rose Bowl and were barred from a repeat . After the game , the AP and UPI split , with the AP ranking Notre Dame # 1 and the UPI ranking Michigan State # 1 . Without injured star QB Gary Beban , # 8 UCLA still managed to beat # 7 USC 14 - 7 . Although UCLA finished with a better overall record ( 9 - 1 ) than USC ( 7 - 3 ) , USC had played one more conference game , and was voted into the Rose Bowl despite losing to the Bruins . The Rose Bowl would pit USC against Purdue when everybody wanted to see UCLA vs . Michigan State . # 3 Alabama , # 4 Nebraska and # 5 Georgia Tech were all idle . The poll remained unchanged . On Thanksgiving Day , # 4 Nebraska and Oklahoma met at Norman , with the Sooners winning 10 - 9 to leave the Cornhuskers with a 9 - 1 - 0 finish . On Saturday , November 26 , # 1 Notre Dame went to Los Angeles to hand # 10 USC a 51 - 0 shutout loss . # 3 Alabama won over Southern Mississippi in Mobile . # 5 Georgia Tech lost to # 7 Georgia 23 - 14 at Athens . The Bulldogs closed with a 9 - 1 - 0 finish , an unbeaten SEC record ( tied with Alabama ) , and an invitation to the Cotton Bowl to face SMU . In the final regular poll , Notre Dame , Michigan State and Alabama were first , second and third , with Georgia 4th and UCLA 5th . On December 3 , # 3 Alabama closed its season with a 31 - 0 win at Birmingham over Auburn , for its fourth straight shutout and a 10 - 0 - 0 record . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Bowl games . In the final AP poll , 9 - 0 - 1 Notre Dame was the overwhelming choice of the writers for the AP Trophy , with 41 of the 56 first place votes , and Michigan State was second . Alabama , which had gone unbeaten and won the Sugar Bowl against Nebraska , still finished third . Georgia , whose only blemish had been a one - point loss to the Miami Hurricanes , was fourth and UCLA was fifth . Other bowls : Other champions . The schools that are now in the NCAA ' s " Division I - AA " were ranked in the " small college poll " , taken by both the UPI ( coaches ) and AP ( a panel of writers ) . In 1966 , both services ranked the 10 - 0 - 0 San Diego State Aztecs # 1 and the 8 - 2 - 0 Montana Grizzlies # 2 . The teams met in the Camellia Bowl in Sacramento ( one of four postseason games for college division teams ) . San Diego State won , 28 - 7 . In the NAIA championship game , the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets beat the UW - Whitewater Warhawks 42 - 21 .