2025 Sugar Bowl
| 2025 Allstate Sugar Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| College Football Playoff Quarterfinal 91st Sugar Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, hosted the Sugar Bowl. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | January 2, 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Caesars Superdome | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MOP | Riley Leonard (QB, Notre Dame) Xavier Watts (S, Notre Dame) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Notre Dame by 1.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Samyra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Michael Vandervelde (Big 12) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 57,267 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Sean McDonough (play-by-play) Greg McElroy (analyst) Molly McGrath (sideline) Laura Rutledge (sideline) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2025 Sugar Bowl (officially known as the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl for sponsorship reasons) was a college football bowl game played on January 2, 2025, at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The game was the 91st annual playing of the Sugar Bowl and one of the quarterfinals of the 2024–25 College Football Playoff (CFP) concluding the 2024 FBS football season. The game featured two of the twelve teams chosen by the selection committee to participate in the playoff: the No. 7 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish, an FBS independent, and the No. 2 seed Georgia Bulldogs from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The winner qualified for the Orange Bowl (one of the CFP semifinals) to be played against the winner of the Fiesta Bowl. The game was originally scheduled to be played on January 1 but was postponed to the following day due to a terrorist attack in the nearby French Quarter early on the morning of New Year's Day.
Notre Dame entered the game with a record of 12–1, while Georgia entered 11–2. The Bulldogs, by virtue of their victory in the SEC Championship and their place among the four highest-ranked conference champions, received a first-round bye in the CFP, making this game their first in the playoff. Notre Dame was ranked No. 5 by the playoff committee in their final rankings and received the No. 7 seed. They defeated No. 10 seed Indiana in the first round, earning them a berth in the quarterfinals. Georgia, playing without starting quarterback Carson Beck due to injury, entered the game as slight underdogs despite their higher seeding.
Notre Dame defeated Georgia by a 23–10 score, winning their first major (New Year's Six) bowl game since the 1994 Cotton Bowl Classic, having lost their 10 most recent such appearances. They advanced to the 2025 Orange Bowl, against Penn State, in the CFP semifinals before going on to play in the national championship.