Plot Synopsis

Originally sponsored by The Midwinter Sports Association of New Orleans, the Sugar Bowl was created to be a regular New Year's Day game and compete with the Rose Bowl. The inaugural event, sometimes called the Sugar Bowl Football Classic in newspapers, was played on January 1, 1935, featuring Tulane (representing the South as co-champion of the southeastern conference) winning 20-14 over Temple (receiving the bid for the East as the region's only unbeaten team). The game continued without a title sponsor for more than 40 years, until the 1987 event was known as the USF&G Sugar Bowl for nine years and than the Nokia Sugar Bowl for 12 games. Allstate has been the title sponsor since 2007 for a game that still features schools from the SEC and at-large conferences. The Allstate Sugar Bowl is part of the College Football Playoff rotation and was part of three semifinal matchups played in 2014, 2018, and 2021.