The 55,211 fans in attendance this year was higher than only two other Sugar Bowl iterations since 1940georgia athletics
Georgia defeated Baylor in front of 55,211 fans at last night's Allstate Sugar Bowl, "just shy of setting a new low mark for the bowl, but still far below the standard set for much of the game's 85-year history," according to Jeff Nowak of NOLA.com. This year's attendance at Mercedes-Benz Superdome came in "above just two other versions of the game" since 1940, both "coming in the last seven years." Since the CFP was instituted in the '14 season, the four iterations of the Sugar Bowl that were "not semifinals have averaged 62,338 attendees." In the 10 games prior dating to '05 -- not including the BCS Championship in '12 -- "average Sugar Bowl attendance clocked in at 69,489." Last year's Sugar Bowl featured Texas-Georgia, which saw a crowd of 72,360. That represents the "highest figure in the past decade in which the bowl wasn't part" of the CFP semifinal or a championship game. This year's attendance marked just the third time since 1940 the attendance had "dipped below 60,000, and it's the seventh time in the bowl's history that attendance was below 70,000" (NOLA.com, 1/1).
