Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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142 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY LOU SOMOGYI A mong Notre Dame's 11 consen- sus national champions in football from 1924-88, none has evoked more debate regarding its excel- lence than the 1966 crew. The reasons are many for the group com- memorating its 50th anniversary. The seven champions before them had Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy — ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in major college football history among coaches for best all-time winning percentage. Meanwhile, the three Notre Dame champi- ons after the 1966 crew (1973, 1977 and 1988) all had to defeat unbeaten and/or No. 1-ranked teams in bowl games to earn the national cham- pionship. The 1966 team under third-year head coach Ara Parseghian is the last in college foot- ball to win a title without playing in a bowl game and the last to post less than 10 victories while doing it. Wikipedia lists 1966 as one of the most "con- troversial" seasons in college football history because of the selection of 9-0-1 Notre Dame as the consensus national champion over 11-0 Alabama, which finished No. 3. Even Notre Dame class of 1975 graduate, 1994-2001 Notre Dame Board of Trustee mem- ber and 2005-09 United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice weighed in on 1966 when she became a member of the 13-person College Football Playoff selection committee last year. "We've been trying to get this right for a long time," Rice said of being on the committee. "I fully remember being a little girl when Notre Dame played Michigan State in 1966. Ara Par- seghian went for a tie and there were all kinds of issues about Notre Dame being crowned as champion." The publishing industry from the past and present hasn't helped. In the Nov. 19, 1966 "Game of The Century" between 8-0 and No. 1 Notre Dame and 9-0 and No. 2 Michigan State in East Lansing, Parseghian was vilified because with a late possession in his territory, he opted to run out the clock. Sports Illustrated senior writer Dan Jenkins led the brigade with a parody of the Notre Dame Victory March that included "Old Notre Dame will tie over all," and noted that the Irish "Tie one for The Gipper." In 2006, esteemed journalist/author and proud Alabama supporter Keith Dunnavant penned the book The Missing Ring, referring to the 1966 Associated Press vote as "the greatest injustice in the history of the national champi- onship selection process." Wrote Dunnavant: "In the history of college football, no other team has ever won back-to- back national championships, finished unde- feated and untied, and been denied the title. In the history of college football, no other team has ever been ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll, finished perfect and then been denied the title." In his 2008 book, The Maisel Report, ES- PN's Ivan Maisel — perhaps the dean of the college football industry and its history — ranked the 1966 Irish as the "most overrated team" to win a national title. In reality, the 1966 Notre Dame team — whose defense allowed only 24 points all sea- son — hardly needs to be defended. Let us count the ways why they were as dominant and powerful, if not more, than any other champion: 1. Point Differential/Strength Of Schedule The 1966 team had a larger average margin of victory or point disparity (32.4) than any other of Notre Dame's 10 consensus national champions. Notre Dame's 1966 national champions often have been unjustly slighted, but the passage of time has proven their eminence GOLDEN