Sugar Bowl

In 1890, Pasadena, California, held its first Tournament of Roses Parade to showcase the city's mild weather compared to the harsh winters in northern cities. As one of the organizers said: "In New York, people are buried in snow. Here, our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear [fruit]. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise." In 1902, the annual festival was enhanced by adding a football game.[4]

LSU vs. Oklahoma in 2004

In 1926, leaders in Miami, Florida, decided to do the same with a "Fiesta of the American Tropics" that was centered around a New Year's Day football game. Although a second "Fiesta" was never held, Miami leaders later revived the idea with the "Palm Festival" (with the slogan "Have a Green Christmas in Miami"). The football game and associated festivities of the Palm Festival were soon named the "Orange Bowl."[5]

In New Orleans, Louisiana, the idea of a New Year's Day football game was first presented in 1927 by Colonel James M. Thomson, publisher of the New Orleans Item, and Sports Editor Fred Digby. Every year thereafter, Digby repeated calls for action, and even came up with the name "Sugar Bowl" for his proposed football game.[6]

By 1935, enough support had been garnered for the first Sugar Bowl. The game was played in Tulane Stadium, which had been built in 1926 on Tulane University's campus (before 1871, Tulane's campus was Paul Foucher's plantation, where Foucher's father-in-law, Etienne de Bore, had first granulated sugar from cane syrup). Warren V. Miller, the first president of the New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association, guided the Sugar Bowl through its difficult formative years of 1934 and 1935. An unusual 2–0 score marked the 1942 Sugar Bowl, in which the sole scoring play was a safety.

Much controversy preceded the 1956 Sugar Bowl, when the Pitt Panthers, with African-American fullback Bobby Grier on the roster, met the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.[7] There had been controversy over whether Grier should be allowed to play due to his race, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Georgia's Governor Marvin Griffin's opposition to racial integration.[8][9][10] After Griffin publicly sent a telegram to the state's Board Of Regents requesting Georgia Tech not to engage in racially integrated events, Georgia Tech's president Blake R Van Leer rejected the request and threatened to resign. The game went on as planned [11]

In November 1967, Army's success on the field (then at 7–1) made them a strong candidate to be selected for the 1968 game. However, Pentagon officials, in the midst of the Vietnam War, refused to allow the team to play what would have been the academy's first bowl game ever—citing the "heavy demands on the players' time" as well as an emphasis on football being "not consistent with the academy's basic mission: to produce career Army officers."[12][13]

Superdome in January 2005

Tulane Stadium hosted through December 1974, and it has since been at the Superdome (except 2006). For the 1972 season, the game was moved to New Year's Eve night;[14] which lasted for four editions, returning to New Year's Day in January 1977. The last time it was played on natural grass was in January 1971.

Compared to most bowl games, the Sugar Bowl has had steady naming rights sponsorship. Its first corporate title sponsor was USF&G Financial Services from 1987 to 1995, then Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia from 1995 to 2006. In March 2006, Allstate Insurance was announced as the new title sponsor, and has continued to sponsor the game since.

ABC Sports televised the game from 1969 through 2006. Fox Sports televised the game from 2007 to 2010 as part of its contract with the BCS. ESPN started airing the game with the 2010–11 season, after outbidding Fox for the broadcasting rights.[15]

The 2006 game was relocated to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, because of the extensive damage the Superdome suffered as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Big East Champion West Virginia would go on to beat SEC Champion Georgia in the game 38-35. It returned to the refurbished Superdome in 2007. 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.[16]

Prior to the BCS, the game traditionally hosted the Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion against a top-tier at-large opponent. This was formalized in 1975, when the SEC champion was granted an automatic bid to the Sugar Bowl starting with the end of the 1976 season. This continued throughout the time of the Bowl Coalition, a precursor to the BCS. However, the Sugar Bowl agreed to release the SEC champion if necessary to force a national championship game. Under this format, the Sugar Bowl hosted the first Bowl Coalition national championship game, when SEC champion Alabama upended Miami at the end of the 1992 season. When the Bowl Coalition became the Bowl Alliance at the start of the 1995 season, the Sugar Bowl would still release the SEC champion to go to the national championship game if they were ranked in the top two in the nation.

Under the now-defunct BCS format, the Sugar Bowl continued to host the SEC champion against a top-tier at-large opponent, unless the SEC champion went to the BCS National Championship Game.[17] When this happened, the Sugar Bowl usually selected the highest-ranked SEC team still available in the BCS pool. The SEC champion played for the national championship in every one of the eight final editions of the BCS (2006–2013).

The Sugar Bowl maintains an archive of past programs, images, newsreels, and other materials. The archive, originally housed in the Superdome, survived Hurricane Katrina, but a more secure home was needed. During the summer of 2007, the Sugar Bowl donated its materials to The Historic New Orleans Collection, designating it the permanent home of its archive.

Ohio State vacated its 2011 Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas in response to NCAA allegations over a memorabilia-for-cash scandal.[18]

The 2012 game, pitting the Michigan Wolverines against the Virginia Tech Hokies, was the first Sugar Bowl since 2000—and only the sixth since World War II—without an SEC team. Both of the SEC's BCS participants, Alabama and LSU, played in the National Championship Game (in the Superdome), and under BCS rules only two teams per conference were eligible for BCS bowls.

In May 2012, the Big 12 and SEC announced plans to create a new bowl game, the "Champions Bowl," that would play host to the champions of those two conferences.[19] That November, it was officially announced that the Champions Bowl had been awarded to New Orleans under a 12-year contract beginning in 2015, and would retain the Sugar Bowl name (stating that "Champions Bowl" was only a working title). In addition, it was announced that the Sugar Bowl would host one of two national semi-final games every three seasons (in the 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2024 seasons) as part of the new College Football Playoff system replacing the BCS.[20][21]

Rankings are based on the AP Poll prior to the game being played. Italics denote a tie game

Source:[23]

Future games

Future game dates[24][25]

Season	Date	Day
2021	January 1, 2022	Saturday
2022	January 2, 2023	Monday
2023	January 1, 2024	Monday
2024	January 1, 2025	Wednesday
2025	January 1, 2026	Thursday

denotes game is a College Football Playoff semifinal

The Miller-Digby Award is presented to the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) in the Sugar Bowl, as voted by sports journalists covering the game. The award was initially established in 1948 following the death of Warren V. Miller, the first president of the Bowl; it was renamed the Miller-Digby Memorial Trophy in 1959, to also honor Fred J. Digby, the first general manager and fellow founding member of the Bowl.[26] When the Sugar Bowl acts as a CFP semifinal, both an offensive and defensive MVP are named; this has been the case in 2015, 2018, and 2021.

Year MOP Team Position 1948 Bobby Layne Texas QB 1949 Jack Mitchell Oklahoma QB 1950 Leon Heath Oklahoma FB 1951 Walt Yowarsky Kentucky T 1952 Ed Modzelewski Maryland FB 1953 Leon Hardeman Georgia Tech HB 1954 Pepper Rodgers Georgia Tech QB 1955 Joe Gattuso Navy FB 1956 Franklin Brooks Georgia Tech G 1957 Del Shofner Baylor HB 1958 Raymond Brown Ole Miss QB 1959 Billy Cannon LSU HB 1960 Bobby Franklin Ole Miss QB 1961 Jake Gibbs Ole Miss QB 1962 Mike Fracchia Alabama FB 1963 Glynn Griffin Ole Miss QB 1964 Tim Davis Alabama K 1965 Doug Moreau LSU FL 1966 Steve Spurrier Florida QB 1967 Ken Stabler Alabama QB 1968 Glenn Smith LSU HB 1969 Chuck Dicus Arkansas FL 1970 Archie Manning Ole Miss QB 1971 Bobby Scott Tennessee QB Jan. 1972 Jack Mildren Oklahoma QB Dec. 1972 Tinker Owens Oklahoma FL 1973 Tom Clements Notre Dame QB 1974 Tony Davis Nebraska FB 1975 Richard Todd Alabama QB 1977 Matt Cavanaugh Pittsburgh QB 1978 Jeff Rutledge Alabama QB 1979 Barry Krauss Alabama LB 1980 Major Ogilvie Alabama RB 1981 Herschel Walker Georgia RB 1982 Dan Marino Pittsburgh QB 1983 Todd Blackledge Penn State QB 1984 Bo Jackson Auburn RB 1985 Craig Sundberg Nebraska QB

Year MOP Team Position 1986 Daryl Dickey Tennessee QB 1987 Steve Taylor Nebraska QB 1988 Don McPherson Syracuse QB 1989 Sammie Smith Florida State RB 1990 Craig Erickson Miami (Fla.) QB 1991 Andy Kelly Tennessee QB 1992 Jerome Bettis Notre Dame FB 1993 Derrick Lassic Alabama RB 1994 Errict Rhett Florida RB Jan. 1995 Warrick Dunn Florida State RB Dec. 1995 Bryan Still Virginia Tech WR 1997 Danny Wuerffel Florida QB 1998 E. G. Green Florida State WR 1999 David Boston Ohio State WR 2000 Peter Warrick Florida State WR 2001 Ken Dorsey Miami (Fla.) QB 2002 Rohan Davey LSU QB 2003 Musa Smith Georgia TB 2004 Justin Vincent LSU RB 2005 Jason Campbell Auburn QB 2006 Steve Slaton West Virginia RB 2007 JaMarcus Russell LSU QB 2008 Marcus Howard Georgia DE 2009 Brian Johnson Utah QB 2010 Tim Tebow Florida QB 2011 Terrelle Pryor Ohio State QB 2012 Junior Hemingway Michigan WR 2013 Teddy Bridgewater Louisville QB 2014 Trevor Knight Oklahoma QB 2015 Ezekiel Elliott Ohio State RB Darron Lee LB 2016 Chad Kelly Ole Miss QB 2017 Baker Mayfield Oklahoma QB 2018 Jalen Hurts Alabama QB Daron Payne DT 2019 Sam Ehlinger Texas QB 2020 George Pickens Georgia WR 2021 Justin Fields Ohio State QB Tuf Borland LB

Terrelle Pryor was later ruled ineligible and his statistics for the 2010 season, including the 2011 Sugar Bowl, were vacated.[27]

Updated through the January 2021 edition (87 games, 174 total appearances).

Teams with multiple appearances

Teams with a single appearance

Won (8): Boston College, Duke, Fordham, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Navy, Utah
Lost (10): Air Force, Carnegie Tech, Cincinnati, Hawai'i, Illinois, Rice, Saint Mary's (CA), Temple, Virginia, Wyoming

Conference participation

• Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt are the only current SEC members that have not appeared in the Sugar Bowl. Former members Georgia Tech and Tulane also appeared in the Sugar Bowl while in the SEC, although former member Sewanee did not.
• Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech are the only current or former Big Eight or Big 12 members that have not appeared in the Sugar Bowl.
• Texas Tech, Houston and SMU are the only former Southwest Conference members that have not played in the Sugar Bowl.

Updated through the January 2021 edition (87 games, 174 total appearances).

• Records are based on a team's conference affiliation at the time the game was played.
• Conferences that are defunct or not currently active in FBS are marked in italics.
• The American Athletic Conference (The American) has retained the charter of the original Big East, following its 2013 realignment.
• The Pac-12 and its predecessors (e.g. PCC) have never appeared in the Sugar Bowl.

Source:[28]

In recent years, television broadcast rights to the Sugar Bowl have been part of the BCS contract. From 1999–2006, the game aired on ABC as part of its BCS package, where it had also been televised from 1969 through 1998. The Sugar Bowl was the only Bowl Alliance game to stick with ABC following the 1995, 1996 and 1997 seasons; the Fiesta and Orange Bowls were televised by CBS. Prior to that, NBC aired the game for several years. From 2006 to 2010, Fox broadcast the game, while ESPN picked up the Sugar Bowl after picking up the rest of the BCS beginning in the 2009–10 season.[15] For 2013, ESPN Deportes introduced a Spanish language telecast of the game.[29]

In November 2012, ESPN announced that it had reached a deal to maintain broadcast rights to the Sugar Bowl through 2026. ESPN pays $55 million yearly to broadcast the game beginning in the 2014–15 season under the new contract, which took effect upon the establishment of the College Football Playoff. ESPN made a similar deal to maintain broadcast rights to the Orange Bowl following the discontinuation of the BCS as well.[30]

• List of college bowl games
• Manning Award

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sugar Bowl.

• Official website