Allstate Sugar Bowl

The Sugar Bowl is a college football postseason game played in New Orleans each year. It is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, having played its first game in 1935 (along with the Orange Bowl and the Sun Bowl). It is part of the Bowl Championship Series and hosts the Southeastern Conference champion (unless the SEC champion plays in the national title game) and one at-large team each year.

The current title sponsor of the Sugar Bowl is Allstate. It also has been sponsored by USF&G and Nokia.

The 2012 Sugar Bowl was won by Michigan, 23-20 over Virginia Tech.

The idea for the Sugar Bowl was first proposed in 1927, after seeing the success of the Rose Bowl in California (which started in 1902) and the idea for a similar game in Miami a few years later. A local newspaper publisher and sports editor suggested a New Year's football game in New Orleans, and the sports editor, Fred Digby, continued to push the idea for years to come.

The plan could not actually come to fruition until 1934, when those two men and several others came together to plan the event. Out of that meeting, the New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association was formed. There were still plenty of obstacles -- the association called for $30,000 to put on the event in a time when the city was feeling the effects of the Great Depression.

The committee decided to ask 300 guarantors for $100 each, with the promise of tickets in return for their money. After the committee earned permission to use Tulane University's stadium, the SEC finally approved the idea of the bowl. Tulane eventually earned an invitation to the bowl, as well, and faced off against Glenn "Pop" Warner's Temple team in a season in which both teams went undefeated. Tulane won that first Sugar Bowl, 20-14.

Over the next several years, Tulane's stadium underwent several renovations as the Sugar Bowl continued to grow in popularity and prestige. The Sugar Bowl began to host other sporting events -- including basketball, rowing and tennis -- during the late 1930s and early 1940s. It also hosted the East-West Shrine Game in 1942 to move the game away from the West Coast during World War II.

The Sugar Bowl sponsored the first live television event in New Orleans history in 1953, when the game was telecast across the nation. It became the first bowl televised nationally in color seven years later. The game was held at Tulane Stadium for the first 40 years of its existence, but it was moved to the Louisiana Superdome in 1975.

In the same year, the Sugar Bowl announced its deal with the SEC, which would send the conference champion to the bowl each year -- Georgia became the first team to represent the SEC in the new agreement in 1977, when the squad took on No. 1 Pitt.

In 1991, the Sugar Bowl joined together with several other bowls and conferences to form the Bowl Coalition, which was played for the first time in 1993 as the Sugar Bowl hosted Miami and Alabama as they fought for the national championship. The bowl joined the Bowl Alliance as it reformed in 1993, and eventually the Bowl Championship Series in 1998. It was named one of the four major bowls in the BCS and would earn a rotating spot hosting the national championship game.