New Orleans, Sugar Bowl to host Big 12-SEC Champions Bowl game
New Orleans was chosen as the site of the debut Big 12-SEC game originally named the Champions Bowl, with the inaugural event scheduled for Jan. 1, 2015.
According to multiple reports, the game will take on the Sugar Bowl name, which will be available as the BCS is dissolved.
New Orleans trumped the other semifinalist city, Arlington, Texas, which could make Cowboys Stadium the preferred site of the 2015 national championship.
The new Sugar Bowl will feature the champion of the Big 12 against the Southeastern Conference champion if neither is selected for a national championship semifinal game. If the conference champ is in a semifinal game, another team from that conference will go to New Orleans in its place. The Champions Bowl name will never be used by the two conferences, who first announced the deal to play the game just before the start of the season.
However, the Sugar Bowl will be kept in the rotation for semifinal playoffs starting at the end of the 2014 regular season. The Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl are also schedule to be in that mix and eventually six total sites are likely to be named as "access bowl games" feeding the national title game, ESPN reported.
The 2015 Sugar Bowl will be televised by ESPN, which is also the home of the Rose Bowl. The network reported it has paid $80 million per bowl game per year for broadcast rights.
