NEW ORLEANS – No. 5 Alabama, from the Southeastern Conference, and No. 9 Kansas State, from the Big 12 Conference, will be featured in the 89th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl on Saturday, December 31, 2022, in the Caesars Superdome. This will be the 61st Sugar Bowl match-up between teams ranked in the Top 10 and the 35th match-up of 10-win teams. The game is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. (Central) and will be televised by ESPN.
Tickets are available by visiting www.Ticketmaster.com.
“The Allstate Sugar Bowl is honored to host two of the best teams from the SEC and the Big 12 once again this year,” said Lloyd Frischhertz, the President of the Sugar Bowl Committee. “We’re thrilled to welcome Kansas State fans for the first time; and we’re always happy to have our old friends from Alabama back in town. We expect this to be an outstanding New Year’s weekend in New Orleans for the teams, their friends and family, and all of the amazing Wildcat and Crimson Tide fans.”
The Allstate Sugar Bowl is the designated destination for the champions of both the Big 12 and the SEC. Kansas State (10-3, 7-2 Big 12) clinched the Big 12 Championship with a thrilling 31-28 overtime victory over No. 3 TCU on Saturday. The Wildcats will become the 93rd conference champion to play in the Sugar Bowl. With SEC Champion Georgia qualifying for the College Football Playoff (CFP) based on its No. 1 national ranking, the SEC assigned Alabama (10-2, 6-2 SEC) as the Crimson Tide owns the next-highest CFP Ranking in the league.
“We’re proud to have this match-up for the 89th Allstate Sugar Bowl,” said Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley. “In Alabama and Kansas State, we have a pair of top-10 teams with outstanding talent on both sides of the ball. It’s also a unique match-up in that Kansas State will be making its first Sugar Bowl trip, while Alabama will be making its 17th Sugar Bowl appearance, more than any other school. And the two schools have never faced off on the gridiron. We’re looking forward to a competitive game and a great atmosphere in the Superdome on December 31st.”
Kansas State will be the home team and will occupy the home bench on the west sideline of the Caesars Superdome while Alabama will occupy the visitor bench on the east sideline. In non-semifinal years, the Big 12 and the SEC alternate home and visitor designations annually (the SEC was the home team in the last Sugar Bowl).
In addition to this being its 17th Sugar Bowl appearance (with a 9-7 record), Alabama will be making its eighth trip to a New Year’s Six bowl (in the current format which began in 2014). Kansas State will become the 51st school to participate in the Sugar Bowl and the first newcomer since Louisville in 2013. This will be the Wildcats’ first trip to a New Year’s Six bowl.
Alabama recorded its 43rd 10-win season in 2022 – the 15th straight year the Crimson Tide has hit double figures in victories. Meanwhile, Kansas State wrapped up the 11th 10-win season in its history with its Big 12 Championship victory. While the two teams have combined to play 2,598 football games in their histories, this will be the first time they have met each other on the gridiron.
Alabama will be making its NCAA record 69th overall bowl appearance with an all-time record of 40-25-3. This will be the 24th bowl appearance for Kansas State, including its 11th in the past 13 years. The Wildcats have an all-time bowl mark of 10-13.
This year’s Sugar Bowl head coaches have established themselves to be among the nation’s elite. Among coaches with 10 or more seasons, Alabama’s Nick Saban, in his 16th year at Alabama. ranks No. 2 with an .801 winning percentage (284-69-1) and Kansas State’s Chris Klieman is No. 4 at .761 (102-32). Saban has earned seven FBS national titles (six at Alabama and one at LSU), while Klieman, in his fourth year in Manhattan, won four FCS national championships at North Dakota State. Saban has a 4-3 record in the Sugar Bowl (2-0 at LSU and 1-3 at Alabama) while Klieman will be the 102nd coach to lead a team into the Sugar Bowl.
This will be the 17th Sugar Bowl meeting between teams that now make up the Big 12 and SEC. The first meeting came in the second Sugar Bowl in 1936 when TCU and Hall-of-Famer Sammy Baugh held off LSU and its own Hall-of-Fame quarterback Abe Mickal, 3-2, in a quagmire. Those teams split national championship recognition that season. The last Big 12-SEC meeting in the Sugar Bowl was this past January when Baylor topped Ole Miss, 21-7. The Big 12 holds a 10-6 advantage entering this year’s game.
Schools that are currently in the SEC have registered an all-time mark of 37-44-1 (.457) in the Sugar Bowl, while this will be the 25th appearance in the game by a current member of the Big 12, with an overall record of 15-9 (.714).
Kansas State has played in the Superdome one other time – a loss to Tulane in 1988 – and is 0-4 all-time in the state of Louisiana (1980 loss to LSU, 1982 Independence Bowl loss to Wisconsin, 1988 loss to Tulane, and a 2009 loss to UL Lafayette). Alabama will be playing its 13th game in the Superdome (6-4 in Sugar Bowls, one win over Tulane in 1992, and a BCS Championship win in 2012). The Crimson Tide has an all-time mark of 55-23-6 in the state of Louisiana (9-7 in the Sugar Bowl, 30-9-3 against LSU in Baton Rouge, 13-6-3 against Tulane in New Orleans, 2-1 in the Independence Bowl and 1-0 against UL in Lafayette).
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 100 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 20 Heisman Trophy winners in its 88-year history. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.2 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
{Courtesy: release from the Allstate Sugar Bowl}