Sugar Bowl on schedule following violent attack on New Orleans' Bourbon Street
Jan 01, 2025
A deadly attack in downtown New Orleans that left 10 dead and more than two dozen wounded in the early hours of New Year’s Day has impacted police presence around the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at Caesars Superdome, but city officials say the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will go on as scheduled.
“The Sugar Bowl Committee is devastated by the terrible events from early this morning,” the Allstate Sugar Bowl posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”
The incident happened around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday when a driver in a pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians along Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter district.
The FBI said the driver of the vehicle was dead and that he was killed in a firefight with police following the attack.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack” at a news conference.
Bodies described as “horribly disfigured” were lying on the street, according to a man who witnessed the harrowing scene along Bourbon and Canal streets.
“It was unbelievable,” Jimmy Cothran told NBC News in an interview Wednesday morning. He compared the carnage on the streets to something he’d previously seen only in movies.
The Sugar Bowl winner will play Penn State in the College Football Playoff semifinal next week.
Where to watch the Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal game on TV
No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Notre Dame are set to kick off 7:45 p.m. local time (8:45 p.m. ET/5:45 p.m. PT) in the second-oldest bowl game in college football history. A televised live broadcast of the game is set to air on ESPN.
A livestream of the game can be found on DirecTV, Hulu with Live TV, Fubo, YouTube TV and more.