Sugar Bowl Looks to Build Its Legacy in College Football

This season is a turning point for college football.

Here are some of the many reasons:

• Expanding the College Football Playoff field from four teams to 12, including four first-round games played on campus.

• A realignment that split the Pac-12 and sent 17 schools into new conferences. The Power Five is not the Power Four.

• The ever-expanding transfer portal and the growing influx of NIL money.

• The House of Representatives vs. NCAA settlement, which awards former athletes $2.8 billion and allows college athletes to become employees and participate in collective bargaining.

• The retirement of seven-time national champion coach Nick Saban and its impact on the power dynamics in the Southeastern Conference.

• The 12-year CFP contract expiring after the 2025 season, the number of playoff teams and other features have not yet been determined.

This last fact is particularly close to my heart because the future of the 90-year-old Allstate Sugar Bowl is at stake.

Playoff games on campus could lead college football’s influential players to conclude that the quarterfinals and semifinals — scheduled for the New Year’s Six Bowl games only until next season — could also be better played on campus. The consequences for the Sugar Bowl and other top games would be dire.

“I don’t think the fate of the free world depends on it, but it’s certainly important to all of us involved in the college football postseason,” said Sugar Bowl general manager Jeff Hundley, whose Jan. 1 game will be the quarterfinals of this season’s playoffs. “It’s going to be a learning experience, figuring out what works, what doesn’t, how schools respond, how fans respond.

“We’re a little bit on the edge this year, but that’s good. It’s important that we show ourselves at our best.”

CFP’s new executive director, Rich Clark, agrees.

“Our job now is to make sure that this 12-team playoff is spectacular,” said Clark, who retired as an Air Force lieutenant general and Air Force Academy superintendent to replace Bill Hancock. “We want this first year to go smoothly, for people to love it and welcome it with open arms and put college football in a good light.

“Then, as we move forward, we need to help commissioners and presidents think about things at a championship level and help keep college football the sport that Americans love.”

Warde Manuel shares that same mindset. The Michigan athletic director and New Orleans native is the chairman of the CFP selection committee.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “But we have the opportunity to move forward in college sports.

“We’re definitely in a different business model. But this is not the time to wish for the past or just want to stay in the present. The future is here.”

For Hundley and the Sugar Bowl, the key is adjusting to a new reality, what is considered a “bowl experience” that has been overshadowed by teams’ desire to make the playoffs.

This means teams will arrive in New Orleans three days before the game instead of the usual five, as well as limiting outdoor activities.

More importantly, more tickets will be available for sale for the match itself, as the team’s ticket allocation has been reduced from 12,500 to 10,000 per person due to the additional travel required by the expanded bracket.

So far, the Sugar Bowl has done its job. Hundley said 99% of the tickets the bowl is responsible for selling have been sold, although an exact number is not available.

“In the past, our focus has been on tourism and getting as many fans to come and visit as possible, and that continues to be the case,” Hundley said. “We work very hard to make the city interesting while they’re here.

“But we also need more local support, and we’ve been saying that for a year. The quickest way to ruin that would be to not sell tickets.”

The Sugar Bowl is doing all this not only to maintain its position in the playoff rotation, but also to earn a spot in the championship game in 2027.

After playing in four BCS title games, New Orleans has been the site of just one CFP championship — LSU’s victory over Clemson in 2020. Future championship games are expected to be contested in new locations, such as Las Vegas (where the game is set to be played in 2026), Nashville, Tennessee, Charlotte, North Carolina and even Cleveland — where the Browns are seeking a covered stadium.

“We haven’t been given any indication that we won’t be a part of the playoffs in the future,” Hundley said. “But it’s up to us to give them every reason to make sure they want us to be a part of it. So having less than a full stadium is not an option.”

For now, Clark favors maintaining the status quo.

“I personally like the way the format is set up,” he said. “The championship game has a rich history in college football.

“There’s a lot of excitement about playing on campus, but the logistics of playing in the quarterfinals and semifinals are more difficult than the first round. We’ll just have to see how these two years go and get through it.”

Another element under consideration is maintaining the current committee system, although there has been criticism of the lack of transparency due to the lack of a ranking formula, which in the BCS days was determined using a combination of polls and computers.

Manuel believes that the committee format is necessary.

“We’ve been given a huge amount of data to work with,” he said. “But then we can condense it, talk about it, even watch a video. It comes down to more than just game stats and scores and who beat who. You have to have the human element.”

Manuel’s tasks this year include explaining the rankings during the presentation on Tuesday and the final presentation on December 8.

“I know the setup and I’ve been in front of the camera before,” he said. “But sometimes when you have five minutes to explain two days of very complicated work, it’s not easy.

“I can assure you that the voting to select the 25 best teams is carried out with full commitment and responsibility.”