The 2022 Sugar Bowl was a

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bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played on December 31, 2022, at

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New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. The 89th annual

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

, the game featured

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

and

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC). The game began at 11:00 a.m. CST and was aired on

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. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. Sponsored by insurance company

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, the game was officially known as the Allstate Sugar Bowl. This game was the final Sugar Bowl with its conference tie in of SEC vs Big 12 before the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in 2024 (2025 Calendar year) and hosting the final four team playoff semifinal in 2023 (2024 Calendar year). Due to

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(NFL) scheduling considerations, New Year's Day bowl games are rescheduled when January 1 falls on a Sunday. As the NFL's 18-week regular season resulted in ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' (which Sugar Bowl rightsholder

is committed to broadcast) being played in Week 17 on January 2, the Sugar Bowl was moved to December 31 for the first time since its 1995 edition.

Teams

Consistent with conference tie-ins, the game featured Alabama from the

(SEC) and

champion Kansas State. In the final

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

(CFP) rankings, they were ranked fifth and ninth, respectively. This was the first meeting between the two programs.

Alabama

Alabama entered the season as one of the favorites to win both the SEC and the national championship, however, after getting off to a 6–0 start, they fell to

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

on a last-second

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and were defeated by

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

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. The later loss cost Alabama the SEC West title. The Crimson Tide finished their regular season with a 10–2 record, 6–2 in SEC play. As SEC champion, Georgia finished with the number-one seed in the final CFP rankings, and thus advanced to the national semifinals, Alabama was selected for the Sugar Bowl as the next-highest ranked SEC team. This was Alabama's 17th Sugar Bowl appearance, having a record of 9–7 in prior appearances.

Kansas State

Kansas State began the season unranked, but after compiling a 7–2 conference record, they qualified for the

Big 12 Championship Game The Big 12 Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big 12 Conference between the best and the second-best Big 12 team. The game was played each year since the conference's formation in 1996 until 2010 and returned during the 201 ...

, where they upset TCU, 31–28 in overtime. Kansas State had lost to TCU during the regular season, along with losses to Tulane and Texas. They defeated two ranked teams, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. As a result of winning a

Power Five The power conferences are the most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I, the highest level o ...

championship, the Wildcats earned an automatic bid to a New Years Six game. The Wildcats were invited to the Sugar Bowl, which, since the 2015 season, normally invites the Big 12 champion, notwithstanding CFP semifinal scheduling. This was Kansas State's first appearance in the Sugar Bowl. They enter the bowl with an overall 10–3 record.

Game summary

Statistics

References

{{Kansas State Wildcats bowl game navbox

Sugar Bowl