One Michigan team makes SI's all-time top 25. It's not the Wolverines

Of all the championship teams produced by Michigan's storied college football programs, only one cracked Sports Illustrated's latest ranking of the 25 greatest teams of all time.

And it didn't come from Ann Arbor, home to the winningest college program of all time.

Instead, Sports Illustrated ranked a team from Michigan State University among the greatest squads in history. SI ranked MSU's storied 1966 team 20th on its list. The team was a 9-0-1 powerhouse whose significance stretched well beyond wins and losses.

The ranking leaves Michigan, college football's all-time leader in victories, without a team among SI's top 25 despite a history filled with national champions, undefeated seasons and some of the sport's most recognizable players and coaches.

MSU 1966 team is best known for only blemish

The Spartans swept their Big Ten schedule in 1966. Their only blemish came in a 10-10 tie against Notre Dame in one of college football's most famous and most-watched games.

But SI's case for the Spartans goes beyond their performance on the field.

The ranking emphasizes the role coach Duffy Daugherty's program played in opening opportunities for Black players at a time when much of major college football remained segregated.

SI noted that the 1966 Spartans had 17 Black players, 10 of them from the South.

The team was also loaded with talent, including future College Football Hall of Famers Bubba Smith, George Webster, Clinton Jones and Gene Washington.

Michigan State outscored opponents by nearly 20 points per game, according to SI, while a defense anchored by Smith and Webster allowed 9.9 points per game. The Spartans beat No. 9 Purdue 41-20 on their way to a perfect Big Ten record.

Then came the game that would define the season.

No. 2 Michigan State and No. 1 Notre Dame played to a 10-10 tie in East Lansing in what was known as the Game of the Century. Notre Dame finished first in the final Associated Press and UPI polls, while Michigan State was recognized as national champion by the National Football Foundation and other selectors.

MSU then placed the greatest concentration of first-round NFL talent from one school in the following year's draft: Four of the NFL's first eight picks were Spartans (1. Smith, to the Colts, 2. Jones, to the Vikings, 5. Webster, to the Oilers, 8. Washington, to the Vikings).

Interestingly, SI did not select the 1966 Notre Dame team in its greatest rankings. The Fighting Irish also went 9-0-1, but SI nevertheless gave the No. 20 spot to the Spartans, whose broader impact on the integration of college football figured prominently in the magazine's assessment.

SI's assessment of the Spartans' broader legacy was unequivocal: "Michigan State forever changed the sport for the better."

For Michigan fans, the more surprising part of the ranking may be the team that isn't there.

The Wolverines have no shortage of candidates.

Fielding Yost's 1901 Michigan team went 11-0 and outscored its opponents an astounding 550-0. The following team went 11-0 and outscored opponents 644-12.

Michigan had other dominant teams in the early decades of college football, became a national power again in the 1940s and shared the 1997 national championship behind Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson.

And then there is the most obvious modern candidate: the 2023 Wolverines, who went 15-0 and beat Washington to win the College Football Playoff national championship.

The makeup of SI's ranking may provide some context for Michigan's absence.

Although college football dates to 1869, nine of SI's 25 selections are from 2000 or later, based on the teams included in its ranking.

Only four selections reach back before 1950. The oldest team included is Notre Dame's undefeated 1924 national champion, which ranks No. 25.

That leaves the first half-century or so of college football without a representative, a notable factor for Michigan because some of the Wolverines' most statistically overwhelming teams played during that period.

Michigan's teams from 1901 through 1904, for instance, went a combined 43-0-1. All four fall before the earliest team represented in SI's rankings.

SI acknowledged at the outset that comparing teams separated by generations presents problems. The article pointed to the dramatic evolution in offensive styles and player size as well as the gradual racial integration of college football.

There is one more wrinkle in the rankings. The 1968 Ohio State team ranks No. 10.

SI highlighted the famous "Super Sophomores" team of Rex Kern, Jim Stillwagon and Jack Tatum. Ohio State finished 10-0 and defeated USC in the Rose Bowl to complete an undefeated national championship season.

At the top of the list, SI ranks the 2001 Miami Hurricanes No. 1, followed by 1995 Nebraska, 2019 LSU, 1972 USC and 1971 Nebraska. Two of the top 25, the 2009 and 2024 Alabama teams, were coached by former MSU Coach Nick Saban.

But for football fans in Michigan, No. 20 arguably provides the ranking's most interesting takeaway. The state's representative is Daugherty's 1966 Spartans, a team remembered not only for what it accomplished on the field but for helping change who got the opportunity to play major college football.