The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Louisiana 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 (first played 1902, played annually since 1916).[2] The Sugar Bowl is also a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Presently, its official title is the Allstate Sugar Bowl after its current sponsor.

The Sugar Bowl hosted the BCS National Championship Game in 2000 and 2004. However, since the 2006 season, the BCS National Championship Game has been a stand-alone event one week following the New Year's Day bowl games (including the Sugar Bowl). Under the current BCS format, the Sugar Bowl itself will not host the BCS National Championship Game, but the Superdome will be one of the four rotating stadiums used to host the BCS National Championship Game.

The Sugar Bowl hosts the Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion unless (under the current BCS alignment) the team is selected to play in the national championship game; in that case the Sugar Bowl can select a team at-large from any conference as the host team. The SEC champion has participated in every standalone BCS National Championship Game since 2006; the Sugar Bowl has used its replacement selection on an SEC at-large team. As such, an SEC team has played in the Sugar Bowl every year since the 2000–01 game.

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