The 1980 Sugar Bowl featured the second ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, and the sixth ranked Arkansas Razorbacks. Alabama defeated Arkansas, 24-9, winning their third national championship of the decade.

Arkansas

The Razorbacks entered the game at 10-1, sharing the Southwest Conference title with Houston. Greg Kolenda was an All-America

All-America

An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...

n offensive tackle. Arkansas' defense gave up 9.8 points per game on the year, the sixth-best scoring defense.

Alabama

Alabama entered the game undefeated, and had won two national championships already in the decade. The Tide did have three close calls however, including a 3-0 win at LSU

LSU Tigers football

The LSU Tigers football team, also known as the Fighting Tigers or Bayou Bengals, represents Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States in NCAA Division I FBS college football. Current head coach Les Miles has led the team since 2005. Since 1999 when Nick Saban took over as...

.

Game Summary

Arkansas scored first in the first quarter, on a 34 yard Ish Ordonez field goal, to give the Razorbacks a 3-0 advantage. Alabama running back Major Ogilvie scored on touchdown runs of 22 and 1 yard as Alabama led 14-3 at the end of the 1st quarter. In the second quarter, Alan McElroy kicked a 25 yard field goal giving the Crimson Tide a 17-3 advantage. In the third quarter, Kevin Scanlon threw a 3 yard touchdown pass to Robert Farrell as the score became 17-9. In the fourth quarter, Steve Whitman scored on a 12 yard run as Alabama won by a 24-9 margin.

Major Ogilvie was named Sugar Bowl MVP. He also rushed for a touchdown in three consecutive Sugar Bowls.