The 1972 Sugar Bowl (December) was the 39th edition of the college football bowl game, played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, on Sunday, December 31. Part of the 1972–73 bowl game season, it featured the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners of the Big Eight Conference and the independent #5 Penn State Nittany Lions. It was played for the first time on New Year's Eve, at night, and Oklahoma shut out Penn State, 14–0.

The shutout was the first for Penn State in over six years, and it was their first bowl loss in a decade.

This was the only Sugar Bowl between 1950 and January 1995 without a team from the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

The Sooners' only loss was at Colorado. They broke a three-year losing streak to rival Nebraska.

After dropping their opener at Tennessee, Penn State had won ten straight.

The game kicked off on New Year's Eve at 8 pm CST. ABC rejected the Sugar Bowl's request for a 7 pm CST kickoff in order to televise The F.B.I. New Orleans and Baton Rouge were blacked out.

Penn State was without their leading rusher, junior running back John Cappelletti, who was suffering from a virus and a temperature of 102 °F (39 °C). Without the future Heisman Trophy winner, the Lions' defense was forced to step up and it held the Sooners explosive Wishbone offense to only 14 points while forcing eight fumbles, recovering five. However, Oklahoma out gained the Lions 543 to 196 yards, 278 to 49 on the ground.

First quarter