When the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to both the winds from and the flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Sugar Bowl was temporarily moved to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in 2006.

[3] With the expansion of the College Football Playoff to twelve teams in the 2024–25 season, the Sugar Bowl will serve as either a quarterfinal or semifinal each year.

When serving as a quarterfinal, the Sugar Bowl will host the higher-seeded SEC or Big 12 champion, if seeded in the top four.

When serving as a semifinal, the game will be played one week after New Year's Day, and, if the SEC or Big 12 champion is one of the top two seeds, the higher-seeded team will be assigned to the Sugar Bowl.

[5] In 1926, leaders in Miami, Florida, decided to do the same with a "Fiesta of the American Tropics" that was centered around a New Year's Day football game.

Every year thereafter, Digby repeated calls for action, and even came up with the name "Sugar Bowl" for his proposed football game.

Warren V. Miller, the first president of the New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association, guided the Sugar Bowl through its difficult formative years of 1934 and 1935.

[9][10] Griffin was widely criticized by news media leading up to the game, and protests were held at his mansion by Georgia Tech students.

Despite the governor's objections, Georgia Tech's president Blake R. Van Leer upheld the contract after he threatened to resign and the board of regents voted in his favor to compete in the bowl.

[11] In the game's first quarter, a pass interference call against Grier ultimately resulted in Yellow Jackets' 7-0 victory.

Its first corporate title sponsor was USF&G Financial Services from 1987 to 1995, then Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia from 1995 to 2006.

[17] Prior to the BCS, the game traditionally hosted the Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion against a top-tier at-large opponent.

This was formalized in 1975, when the SEC champion was granted an automatic bid to the Sugar Bowl starting with the end of the 1976 season.

During the summer of 2007, the Sugar Bowl donated its materials to The Historic New Orleans Collection, designating it the permanent home of its archive.

Ohio State vacated its 2011 Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas in response to NCAA allegations over a memorabilia-for-cash scandal.

[19] The 2012 game, pitting the Michigan Wolverines against the Virginia Tech Hokies, was the first Sugar Bowl since 2000—and only the sixth since World War II—without an SEC team.

Source:[26] The Miller-Digby Award is presented to the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) in the Sugar Bowl, as voted by sports journalists covering the game.

Won (9): Boston College, Duke, Fordham, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Navy, Utah, Washington

Lost (11): Air Force, Carnegie Tech, Cincinnati, Hawai'i, Illinois, Kansas State, Rice, Saint Mary's (CA), Temple, Virginia, Wyoming Updated through the January 2025 edition (91 games, 182 total appearances).

ESPN pays $55 million yearly to broadcast the game beginning in the 2014–15 season under the new contract, which took effect upon the establishment of the College Football Playoff.