The College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed a day because of an attack about a mile away from the Superdome early Wednesday, when authorities say a truck driver deliberately plowed into a New Year’s crowd and killed 15 people.

The game, originally scheduled for 5:45 p.m. PST at the 70,000-seat Superdome on Wednesday, was pushed back to 1 p.m. today. The winner advances to the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl against Penn State.

“Public safety is paramount,” Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said at a media briefing alongside federal, state and local officials, including Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “All parties all agree that it’s in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game.”

The casualties occurred when a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day. In addition to those killed, more than 30 people were injured. The driver was killed in a firefight with police following the attack at about 3:15 a.m. (CST) along Bourbon Street near Canal Street, the FBI said.

The decision to postpone the game meant numerous traveling fans with tickets would not be able to attend. Ticket prices online plummeted in some cases to less than $25 as fans with plans to depart on Thursday tried to unload them.

“We can’t get new flights,” said Lisa Borrelli, a 34-year-old Philadelphia resident who came to New Orleans with her fiance, a 2011 Notre Dame graduate.

Postponing the game “was absolutely the right call,” she said. “I completely understand.”

She said they paid more than $250 per ticket and hadn’t bothered listing them for resale yet because prices were so low.

“Of course we’re disappointed to miss it and to lose so much money on it, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter,” Borrelli said. “We’re fortunate enough that we’ll be fine.”

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said the decision to postpone the game “was not done lightly.”

“It was done with one single thing in mind: public safety — making sure that the citizens and visitors of this great city, not only for this event, but for every event you come to in Louisiana, that you will be safe,” Carter added.

Landry said he had a message for those thinking, “Man, do I really want to go to the Sugar Bowl tomorrow?”

“I tell you one thing: Your governor’s going to be there,” Landry said. “That is proof, believe you me, that that facility and this city is safer today than it was yesterday.”

The Superdome was on lockdown for security sweeps on Wednesday morning.

Both teams spent most of the day in their hotels, holding meetings in ballrooms.

Georgia’s players bused to the Superdome for a walk-through practice on Wednesday evening. As they made their way to buses on Canal Street, fans in red and black stood eight to 10 deep behind barricades, cheering them on, phones held high above their heads to capture the scene.

Penn State stops Jeanty, Boise State >> Penn State defenders clogged every hole, stretched out every outside run, closed with ferocity.

Everywhere that Ashton Jeanty turned, he ran into Nittany Lions. The Heisman Trophy runner-up still went over 100 yards, but he sure had to work for it.

Drew Allar threw three touchdown passes and No. 5 Penn State bottled up Jeanty for a 31-14 win over No. 8 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

“We knew who we were going against. We knew we had to have hats to the ball every single play because every play he could break one,” said Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley, who had an interception and recovered a fumble. “We did that the whole game.”

The Nittany Lions (13-2, CFP No. 6 seed) opened their first CFP berth with a blowout win over SMU and appeared headed toward the latest lopsided victory in the new 12-team format by jumping out to a 14-0 lead against Boise State.

But the Broncos (12-2, CFP No. 3 seed) have relished the role of underdog, going back to when their brand went national in the electrifying 2007 Fiesta Bowl, and they had an answer.

Boise State galloped back from the early deficit, trimming the margin to 17-14 early in the third quarter, momentum seemingly on its side.

And then Penn State turned the tide for good.

Allar threw his second touchdown pass of the night to John Mackey Award winner Tyler Warren, and Nick Singleton burst up the middle for a 58-yard TD run, sending the Nittany Lions to the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl against No. 2 Georgia or No. 3 Notre Dame.