ESPN · Running

Sugar Bowl

1935

Last aired: S1 E92, 2026 Sugar Bowl: Ole Miss Rebels vs. No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs · 2026-01-01

The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Sugar Bowl has been played annually since January 1, 1935, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on January 2, 2009. The Sugar Bowl, along with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl, are the second-oldest bowl games in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is also a member of the College Football Playoff. Presently, its official title is the Allstate Sugar Bowl after its current sponsor. The Sugar Bowl has had a longstanding —albeit not exclusive— relationship with the Southeastern Conference (which once had a member based in New Orleans,Tulane University; another Louisiana school, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, is still in the SEC today). From 1950 to 1995, only once did the Sugar Bowl notfeature an SEC team. That relationship has been altered over the past twenty years due to conference realignments and the emergence of a series of coalitions and alliances intending to produce an undisputed national champion in college football, but the ties between the Sugar Bowl and the SEC have persisted and have recently been strengthened. Starting in January 2015, the Sugar Bowl game will be in a three-year rotation with the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Peach, and Fiesta bowls where they'll host a semifinal game the first year and feature the SEC and Big 12 conference champions the next two, an arrangement nearly identical with the relationship between the Rose Bowl and the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-12. As a member of the Bowl Championship Series, the Sugar Bowl hosted the BCS National Championship Game twice (2000 and 2004). However, from the 2006 season to the 2013 season, the BCS National Championship Game had been a stand-alone event, following one week after the New Year's Day bowl games. This means that, under the now-defunct BCS format, no traditional bowl game hosted the BCS National Championship Game, but that game was played at the venue of one of those traditional major bowls, rotating amongst the four sites, including the Superdome. The payout for the 2006 game was $14–17 million per participating team. According to Sports Illustrated, the 2007 salary for Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan was $607,500.