Sugar Bowl

American football game

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Last Updated: Mar 10, 2024 • Article History

Category: Arts & Culture

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Sugar Bowl, postseason American collegiate football game played on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day in New Orleans. The bowl hosts, in a rotation along with the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, and Rose bowls, a semifinal game of the College Football Playoff, which determines college football’s Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly known as Division I-A) national champion.

(Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American football.)

Assorted sports balls including a basketball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and others.

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The first Sugar Bowl was played in 1935, eight years after it had been conceived by Col. James M. Thomson, publisher of the New Orleans Item, and by Fred J. Digby, a columnist for that newspaper. Supporters of the game raised $30,000 by subscription, and Tulane University allowed its stadium to be used at no charge (Tulane defeated Temple University 20–14 in the inaugural game). The Sugar Bowl moved from Tulane Stadium to the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in 1976. At that time the champion team of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) became the host team of the Sugar Bowl. From 1999 to 2006, under the original format of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS; the precursor to the College Football Playoff), the Sugar Bowl took a turn being the national championship game every four years. (Under the system that was in place from 2007 to 2013, all the BCS bowls were played annually, with a rotating national championship game added). The Sugar Bowl still has tie-ins with the SEC and the Big 12 Conference, whose champions generally play there unless the teams or the bowl is participating in the national semifinals. Annual festivities leading up to the Sugar Bowl include a regatta on Lake Pontchartrain and a few unofficial Mardi Gras-style parades.

A list of Sugar Bowl results is provided in the table.

Sugar Bowl¹
season	result
¹Part of Bowl Championship Series (BCS) from 1998–99 until 2013–14; part of College Football Playoff (CFP) from 2014–15.
²BCS national championship game.
³Win vacated because of rules violations committed by Ohio State during the 2010–11 season.
⁴CFP semifinal.
1934–35	Tulane	20	Temple	14
1935–36	Texas Christian	3	Louisiana State	2
1936–37	Santa Clara	21	Louisiana State	14
1937–38	Santa Clara	6	Louisiana State	0
1938–39	Texas Christian	15	Carnegie Tech	7
1939–40	Texas A&M	14	Tulane	13
1940–41	Boston College	19	Tennessee	13
1941–42	Fordham	2	Missouri	0
1942–43	Tennessee	14	Tulsa	7
1943–44	Georgia Tech	20	Tulsa	18
1944–45	Duke	29	Alabama	26
1945–46	Oklahoma A&M	33	St. Mary's	13
1946–47	Georgia	20	North Carolina	10
1947–48	Texas	27	Alabama	7
1948–49	Oklahoma	14	North Carolina	6
1949–50	Oklahoma	35	Louisiana State	0
1950–51	Kentucky	13	Oklahoma	7
1951–52	Maryland	28	Tennessee	13
1952–53	Georgia Tech	24	Mississippi	7
1953–54	Georgia Tech	42	West Virginia	19
1954–55	Navy	21	Mississippi	0
1955–56	Georgia Tech	7	Pittsburgh	0
1956–57	Baylor	13	Tennessee	7
1957–58	Mississippi	39	Texas	7
1958–59	Louisiana State	7	Clemson	0
1959–60	Mississippi	21	Louisiana State	0
1960–61	Mississippi	14	Rice	6
1961–62	Alabama	10	Arkansas	3
1962–63	Mississippi	17	Arkansas	13
1963–64	Alabama	12	Mississippi	7
1964–65	Louisiana State	13	Syracuse	10
1965–66	Missouri	20	Florida	18
1966–67	Alabama	34	Nebraska	7
1967–68	Louisiana State	20	Wyoming	13
1968–69	Arkansas	16	Georgia	2
1969–70	Mississippi	27	Arkansas	22
1970–71	Tennessee	34	Air Force	13
1971–72	Oklahoma	40	Auburn	22
1972–73	Oklahoma	14	Penn State	0
1973–74	Notre Dame	24	Alabama	23
1974–75	Nebraska	13	Florida	10
1975–76	Alabama	13	Penn State	6
1976–77	Pittsburgh	27	Georgia	3
1977–78	Alabama	35	Ohio State	6
1978–79	Alabama	14	Penn State	7
1979–80	Alabama	24	Arkansas	9
1980–81	Georgia	17	Notre Dame	10
1981–82	Pittsburgh	24	Georgia	20
1982–83	Penn State	27	Georgia	23
1983–84	Auburn	9	Michigan	7
1984–85	Nebraska	28	Louisiana State	10
1985–86	Tennessee	35	Miami (Fla.)	7
1986–87	Nebraska	30	Louisiana State	15
1987–88	Auburn	16	Syracuse	16
1988–89	Florida State	13	Auburn	7
1989–90	Miami (Fla.)	33	Alabama	25
1990–91	Tennessee	23	Virginia	22
1991–92	Notre Dame	39	Florida	28
1992–93	Alabama	34	Miami (Fla.)	13
1993–94	Florida	41	West Virginia	7
1994–95	Florida State	23	Florida	17
1995–96	Virginia Tech	28	Texas	10
1996–97	Florida	52	Florida State	20
1997–98	Florida State	31	Ohio State	14
1998–99	Ohio State	24	Texas A&M	14
1999–2000²	Florida State	46	Virginia Tech	29
2000–01	Miami (Fla.)	37	Florida	20
2001–02	Louisiana State	47	Illinois	34
2002–03	Georgia	26	Florida State	13
2003–04²	Louisiana State	21	Oklahoma	14
2004–05	Auburn	16	Virginia Tech	13
2005–06	West Virginia	38	Georgia	35
2006–07	Louisiana State	41	Notre Dame	14
2007–08	Georgia	41	Hawaii	10
2008–09	Utah	31	Alabama	17
2009–10	Florida	51	Cincinnati	24
2010–11	Ohio State³	31	Arkansas	26
2011–12	Michigan	23	Virginia Tech	20
2012–13	Louisville	33	Florida	23
2013–14	Oklahoma	45	Alabama	31
2014–15⁴	Ohio State	42	Alabama	35
2015–16	Mississippi	48	Oklahoma State	20
2016–17	Oklahoma	35	Auburn	19
2017–18⁴	Alabama	24	Clemson	6
2018–19	Texas	28	Georgia	21
2019–20	Georgia	26	Baylor	14
2020–21⁴	Ohio State	49	Clemson	28
2021–22	Baylor	21	Mississippi	7
2022–23	Alabama	45	Kansas State	20
2023–24⁴	Washington	37	Texas	31

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.