re: Pre 1970 was the Sugar Bowl a lot less prestigious?

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Pre 1970 was the Sugar Bowl a lot less prestigious?

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The selection of the SEC champion wasn't formalized until 1975.

Prior to then, you still had a lot of top ten matchups in the Sugar Bowl, but you were all too often missing the conference champion.

Here's the years from 1950 onwards that didn't feature the conference champion (conference champ listed first, then SEC team that went to Sugar instead)

'53: #13 Bama in Cotton Bowl, #8 Georgia Tech in Sugar Bowl
'55: #10 Ole Miss in Cotton Bowl, #7 Georgia Tech in Sugar Bowl
'57: #1 Auburn did not play in a bowl game because on probation due to pay for play scandal, #7 Ole Miss in Sugar Bowl
'59: #5 Georgia in Orange Bowl, #3 LSU in Sugar vs. #2 Ole Miss
'64: #1 Bama in Orange Bowl, #7 LSU in Sugar
'65: #4 Bama in Orange Bowl, unranked Florida in Sugar
'67: #2 Tennessee in Orange Bowl, unranked LSU in Sugar
'69: #11 Tennessee in Gator Bowl, #13 Ole Miss in Sugar
'71: #2 Bama in Orange Bowl, #4 Tennessee in Sugar
'72: #4 Bama in Cotton Bowl, No SEC team in Sugar
'74: #2 Bama in Orange Bowl, #18 Florida in Sugar

So a *lot* less prestigious?

Definitely less prestigious. Still a lot of top ten matchups and top teams. Mostly due to losing out on Bama 5 times during Bryant's prime.

The Orange Bowl landed a top 5 ranked SEC champion 6 times between 1950 and 1975. That had to suck for the Sugar Bowl and they finally fixed that in 1975. But it came at the price of losing the Big Eight champ as the Orange Bowl inked a similar deal in 1976.