Tulane Earns Automatic Bid to NCAA Tournament Despite 19–40 Record

The Green Wave started their season 1-10.

Imagine a college basketball team making the NCAA tournament with a record of approximately 10-21, or a college football team making a bowl game after a season in the neighborhood of 4-8.

Something similar happened Sunday afternoon, as Tulane shocked the college baseball world by qualifying for the NCAA baseball tournament with a pedestrian record of 19-40.

The Green Wave were seeded seventh in the 10-team AAC tournament in Clearwater, Fla., before exploding over the course of a dramatic week. Tulane upset Houston, beat Memphis via the mercy rule, bounced back from a loss to the Cougars to eliminate them, and topped East Carolina 8-6 in the conference championship.

Wow. @GreenWaveBSB, which is 18-40, shocks top-seeded East Carolina 8-6 to win the @American_Conf automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. #Tulane is headed to the tourney for the first time since 2016. What a run.

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 28, 2023

The victory secured the Green Wave's first tournament berth since 2016, and marked the program's ninth conference tourney title between the Metro Conference, Conference USA and AAC.

Tulane — a proud program that reached the College World Series in 2001 and 2005 — will now look to make the most of an opportunity few could have foreseen when the Green Wave started the season 1-10.