Tulane Green Wave Has College Football Playoff Edge in Non-Conference Play
There's been a lot of chatter surrounding the Tulane Green Wave as college football prepares for more realignment in the indeterminate future with the Pac-12 needing one more football member by 2026.
While Tulane football has been linked to the revitalized conference, largely as a pair with the Memphis Tigers, they also have sights on positioning themselves for a Power Four invite—both of which are aided by a run at the College Football Playoff.
The value of the new Pac-12 for the Green Wave is the increased competition and value as the top Group of Five conference fighting for the one awarded berth to the highest-ranked champion.
Quite frankly, all conference play becomes moot if a team is able to knock off a strong Power Four program — or the most narrow of losses. Tulane had two back-to-back opportunities last season against the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners to control destiny and the G5 playoff slot.
The American Athletic Conference had a vastly more ambitious season than the last, which saw several new foes join in 2024. Multiple teams, notably the Green Wave, the Navy Midshipmen, and the Army Black Knights, were in the conversation for the CFP out of the AAC.
For all the talk of elevated play in a new Pac-12, Tulane was playing catch-up to Group of Five schools that managed to play their Power Four opponents closer, if not be victorious.
The first G5 school to land in the AP Top 25 was the Northern Illinois Huskies out of the Mid-American after they knocked off the eventual championship game-bound Notre Dame Fighting Irish. When they fell out of the rankings, the Boise State Broncos received credit for a 37-34 loss to the Oregon Ducks, who were the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.
The Green Wave were needling their way into the conversation after a shutout of the Midshipmen, but any hopes were spoiled by consecutive losses to the Tigers and Black Knights. There was no way those wins would have changed the fact that the Broncos were the destined G5 school.
A lot of that credit went to Heisman Trophy finalist Ashton Jeanty. But Boise State largely rode their close loss to Oregon, much like Tulane did in 2023 after falling to the Ole Miss Rebels. They would have made another New Year's Six Bowl if they'd won the conference championship.
The Green Wave may not have been the top Group of Five champion that won the Cotton Bowl if they had lost to the Wildcats early on that year. That was what got them ranked early.
The second part of the battle is staying ranked. However, the earlier in the season that Tulane hits the Top 25, the more momentum they have.
That outcome is significantly controlled by their non-conference slate. Should the Green Wave beat one or multiple in the trio of the Duke Blue Devils, Northwestern Wildcats, and Ole Miss, they won't have to worry much about the pedigree of their AAC slate at all.
Conference realignment will happen again — and again. Tulane could do well in the Pac-12. But if the goal is firmly the College Football Playoff, the offset of travel and exit fees might not persuade as much as a strong non-conference schedule that gets the football team on a national radar way faster than improved G5 matchups on the West Coast.
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Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com