A fortuitous quirk in scheduling brought these two teams together late in the season. They were not even supposed to meet when the 1966 schedules were first drawn up. Michigan State had only nine games scheduled (even though they were allowed to have ten; the Big Ten did not allow teams to schedule ten regular season games until 1964) 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 schedule, from 1964 onward (the 1963 Notre Dame-Iowa game was cancelled following the Assassination of John F. Kennedy). Michigan State was available and agreed to return to Notre Dame's schedule in 1965–66.