NEW ORLEANS (October 20, 2022) – With the Syracuse football team standing at a perfect 6-0, one of just nine undefeated FBS schools in the nation, the Allstate Sugar Bowl is "turning back the clock" to January 1, 1988 when the Orange made its second appearance in the Sugar Bowl. Syracuse, which was ranked No. 4 in the nation entering the game, found itself part of one of the more controversial finishes in the game's history as Auburn coach Pat Dye opted to kick a game-tying field goal in the final seconds instead of going for the win.
 
Full History Story – 1988 Sugar Bowl
 
With four seconds remaining on the clock, Auburn faced fourth down on the Syracuse 13-yard line while trailing 16-13. Dye, whose team had no chance at a national championship, was willing to settle for the tie and sent in kicker Win Lyle, who booted his third field goal of the game for the only tie in Allstate Sugar Bowl history.
 
Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson vented his anger by throwing his game plan to the Superdome turf. The tie was the only blot on Syracuse's record and a fire in MacPherson's belly.
 
Minutes before, when his team had to decide whether to go for it on fourth-and-inches at the Auburn 22, MacPherson's choice had been to kick for a 16-13 lead, feeling a team with no shot at No. 1 would have to go for the winning touchdown against an unbeaten, untied opponent in a bowl game. So he called for Tom Vesling to boot the go-ahead 38-yarder.
 
"I told my guys a field goal was like a touchdown," MacPherson said.  "I told them if we made it, Auburn would have to go for the touchdown.  If I had thought in my wildest imagination he'd go for a field goal, we would have gone for a first down."
 
Dye said his Tigers – two and a half point favorites – simply played with "too much character and class" to risk going for a 13-yard touchdown in the fading seconds against the fourth-ranked Orangemen.
 
Following the go-ahead kick by Syracuse, the Tigers drove 62 yards to the 13. And with four seconds remaining, Dye sent in Lyle, to the accompaniment of boos from all ends of the Superdome. Lyle's own frustrated teammates tried to wave him off the field before he made the tying kick.
 
MacPherson made note of the fact that Auburn didn't throw into the end zone once on the last drive.  "They were just fooling around with other things," he said, his anger showing through.  "What the hell was (Dye) thinking?  Why the hell did they come here for in the first place?"
 
A Syracuse radio station, incensed by Dye's strategy, made a call for fans to send Dye ties, the ugliest they could find.  An estimated 2,000 ties flooded the Tiger athletic department in the days following the Sugar Bowl.
 
Dye, however, found a "moral victory" in the intended insult.  He autographed each one, and included the score of the game, and had the athletic department sell them to fans for $100 apiece, with the proceeds donated to Auburn's general fund.  Sales totaled $25,000.