NEW ORLEANS — After 90 editions, the annual Allstate Sugar Bowl is opening a new chapter with the debut of the 12-team College Football Playoff format this season.
Following the evolution of naming college football's top-tier national champion from Associated Press and Coaches Poll to the Bowl Coalition, Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and the original four-team CFP, the existence of the Sugar Bowl in today's college football landscape has perhaps never been more competitive.
On Thursday, Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley sat down with WWL Louisiana's Paul Murphy to discuss the game hosting a CFP quarterfinal pitting No. 2 Georgia (11-2) against the winner of No. 10 Indiana (11-1) at No. 7 Notre Dame (11-1) on Friday, Dec. 20.
"This is a historic moment in time for the Sugar Bowl because it's the first year of the expanded playoff," explained Hundley. "Furthermore, you know, decisions are being made about the future based on how this this year goes. And we think that the matchup either way is going to be historic in nature."
Hundley explained that a Georgia-Notre Dame matchup would harken back to 1980 when the Bulldogs defeated the Fighting Irish for the national championship, and an Indiana win in South Bend would book the Hoosiers on their first-ever trip to the Sugar Bowl.
Murphy asked Hundley how the CFP expansion has affected the near-century-old bowl game.
Here's what he had to say:
"What we're doing now is focusing outward more on the fans than we ever have in the past. Want to continue that. It has served to shorten the game week. It's more of a business trip for the teams and the universities coming in for the game.
"We want to still continue to have an economic impact for the city and state. A lot of people don't understand that while we are a sporting organization, our core mission is tourism through sports.
"If you're paying any attention to what's going on in college athletics right now, every decision is being made about money, and that's not necessarily always been this community's strong suit.
"We put on a great show. People love to come here. We got the culture that's unique and unlike any other in the country. But you know we don't have a lot of Fortune 500 companies here that others do. And right now the sizzle is less important and the actual zeros that you can put on the check [are of] primary importance."
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According to Hundley, the Sugar Bowl Committee is trying to secure a six-year extension to continue the game hosting a quarterfinal or semifinal game each season within the CFP.
"[Over the last 10 years] we've been a semifinal every third year and then the in-between years," he explained. "We had a relationship with the best teams from the SEC in the Big 12 outside the playoff. Now we're going to be inside the playoff and we like that position better. Simply because the game's going to matter every year in today's era."
Hundley said the Sugar Bowl, which last hosted the national championship game in 2020, will still have to bid for the right to host the title game again in the future, which he explained is a costly endeavor given the lack of local resources.
"We had to go out and compete for that, just like they do Super Bowls or Final Fours," he told WWL. "It's a it's a highly expensive endeavor that Sugar Bowl is going to have to support financially out of its own pocket. The first 10 years of the College Football Playoff, the Sugar Bowl was the only bowl that it had to put its own money towards the effort to bring it because it couldn't be raised locally, and last time that was $6 million."
While the current format does not allow neutral site venues to host both a quarterfinal and semifinal in the same year, Hundley said a site – or event such as the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans – could host a quarterfinal on or around Jan. 1 of that year and then host a national championship game weeks later should they win the bid.
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