Tulane Green Wave Gets College Football Playoff Support from Tim Pernetti
Tulane’s loss to Memphis on Thursday may have been all it wrote when it comes to the Green Wave’s College Football Playoff chances.
American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti isn’t so sure.
The Green Wave (9-3, 7-1 in American) will face the Army West Point Black Knights (10-1, 8-0) in the AAC title game at 7 p.m. central on Friday in West Point, N.Y. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
It will be Tulane’s last chance to impress the College Football Playoff committee before it releases the final field on Sunday.
Tulane was in line to host this game before it lost to Memphis on Thursday. But, now the Green Wave must win on Friday to have any chance of sliding into the CFP field.
If the Green Wave wins, Pernetti believes that as a conference champion they have a case.
“If Tulane wins, it will have gotten to 10 wins by beating Army on its home field and will have played only four sub-500 teams,” he said.
The sub-.500 teams argument is an interesting one that Pernetti brought up during a teleconference on Monday in advance of the title game.
He pointed out that potential playoff teams like Boise State (seven), UNLV (eight), Arizona State (eight), Clemson (six) and Iowa State (six) have lost more of their games to under .500 teams than Tulane.
That may matter little given the fact that the Green Wave has three losses this season. One of the arguments circulating going into Tuesday’s next release of the CFP rankings is whether any three-loss SEC teams should be invited to the playoff.
Imagine the difficulty for a three-loss AAC team? That’s why winning on Friday is so important.
In advance of the game, Tulane will likely drop in the CFP rankings on Tuesday. The Green Wave were ranked No. 17 last week.
The Green Wave were one of four Group of 5 teams ranked in last week’s Top 25.
The Boise State Broncos and the UNLV Rebels were ranked No. 11 and No. 22, respectively, and will play each other in the Mountain West Conference championship game.
Army was ranked No. 25 last week.
At least one of these teams will likely make the playoff, as the CFP committee will provide automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions. The winner of the Mountain West or the AAC are likely to get one of those bids.
Pernetti believes the conference is positioned well overall.
“I'm confident that the body of work will be evaluated and I think we're well positioned in the conversation,” he said.
