Sugar Bowl Reportedly Gets Notre Dame

Notre Dame is headed to the Sugar Bowl, Penn State will play Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl and Florida State will probably go to the Cotton Bowl if it loses to Miami, several bowl and school sources said Monday.

Although official announcements won’t be made until Sunday, most major matchups apparently fell into place after Notre Dame’s 35-34 loss to Tennessee.

Sources said Notre Dame will play Florida in the Sugar Bowl even if the 12th-ranked Irish lose to No. 8 Penn State on Saturday. No. 5 Florida can clinch the outright Southeastern Conference title--and the automatic Sugar Bowl berth that goes with it--by beating Kentucky Saturday.

A source said the Sugar Bowl was even willing to take Notre Dame (8-2) with three losses because of its television drawing power and the fact that the Irish haven’t been to New Orleans in 11 years. The Sugar Bowl got poor TV ratings on ABC last January when its Tennessee-Virginia telecast competed with NBC’s national title game between Colorado and Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

Sources also said that No. 6 California appears to be headed to the Citrus Bowl for a meeting with the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, probably No. 15 Clemson.