Executive Director’s note: In 1966 Notre Dame and Michigan State played to a 10-10 tie, setting off a controversy over which team should be No. 1. The game is still talked about until this day more than 50 years later.  Both teams finished the season unbeaten with a tie against each other. Notre Dame wound up No. 1 in three of the major polls, including in the voting for the FWAA’s Grantland Rice Trophy . But the National Football Foundation awarded the MacArthur Bowl to both teams.

The following September Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty wrote a column for the Family Weekly suggesting a Football Playoff. It took college football until the 2014 season to stage a four-team format at the top level of the sport. The Spartans’ coach was way ahead of his time when he talked about the process in the attached column.