Jon Sumrall, who led the Tulane football team to the College Football Playoff, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding College Coach for the State of Louisiana for 2025-26. The New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects Sugar Bowl Athletes of the Month and each year’s New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class. The Sports Awards Committee has recognized the top collegiate coach in Louisiana since 1961. Sumrall, who was selected over more than 250 collegiate coaches in the state, is the fifth Tulane football coach to win the honor and the first since Tommy Bowden in 1998.
Sumrall posted an 11-3 record in 2025, including a 34-21 victory over North Texas in the American Conference Championship for the program’s second conference title in four years. Among his 11 wins this season were a pair of victories over Power 4 opponents in Northwestern (BIG) and Duke (ACC), the Green Wave’s most over Power 4 opponents since 1988.
After winning the American Conference Championship, Tulane advanced to the College Football Playoffs for the first time in school history as the program earned the No. 11 seed and battled on the road before falling at No. 6 seed Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. Besides being its first-ever playoff appearance, the Green Wave are also the first team to ever make the playoffs from the state of Louisiana in the 12-team format. The team closed the season ranked No. 18 in both the Associated Press Poll and the AFCA Coaches Poll.
The Sugar Bowl also conducted a fan vote for its annual awards and the Outstanding College Coach winner was Jeff Willis from the LSU Eunice baseball program. Willis directed the Bengals to the NJCAA/Region 23 Tournament Championship and the NJCAA South District Championship as they posted a 47-13 record and advanced to the NJCAA Division I World Series for the first time after winning eight at the NJCAA Division II level.
The other finalists for Outstanding College Coach for the State of Louisiana were Jay Clark (LSU Gymnastics) and Rick Fremin (Southeastern Softball). Clark directed the LSU gymnastics team to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships as the Tigers posted their second highest team score in an NCAA final in program history. Fremin, in his 11th year at the helm of Southeastern softball, was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Lions to the league’s regular season championship as well as a spot in an NCAA Regional for the third straight year.
The New Orleans Sports Awards Committee came together when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month and a variety of annual award winners. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top athlete in the New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 70th year in 2026.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 114 Hall of Fame players, 55 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 92-year history. The 93rd Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will serve as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, will be played on January 15, 2027. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.6 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
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