Tulane Green Wave Jumped By Power Five Schools in Rankings Despite Win
The Tulane Green Wave continued their winning ways under first-year head coach Jon Sumrall on Saturday with a 24-10 victory over the Rice Owls, moving to 5-2 on the year and 3-0 in conference play.
The Green Wave have consistently shown dominance on both sides of the ball in their contests, scoring a combined 279 points across their seven games, a 39.9 points per game average, while allowing only a combined 141, a 20.1 points per game average.
Even with their continued success this year, the Group of Five team continues to be disrespected as the latest power rankings saw Tulane drop, with three Power Five schools with worse records jumping them.
Chris Vannini of The Athletic ranked Tulane 48th in their latest power rankings, a drop from last week's ranking of 47th, with the Michigan State Spartans (4-3), the Flordia Gators (4-3), and the Virginia Tech Hokies (4-3) all jumping the Green Wave in the rankings.
Remaining in the top 50 is something to be proud of, of course, but the consistent pattern of disrespect for the "lowly Group of Five" has become tired, especially when you consider that Tulane's two losses have come against the Kansas State Wildcats and the Oklahoma Sooners, two Power Five schools, and the Green Wave remained competitive in both, losing by only a combined 22 points.
The Spartans' three losses contain the Boston College Eagles, another 4-3 program that ranks 56th in these same power rankings.
The Gators' losses have not been as bad as Sparties', but they did struggle to win against the UCF Knights, a 3-4 team that ranks 67th in these power rankings.
The Hokies' three losses contain the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, a 4-3 program ranking 53rd in these power rankings, though they did beat the Eagles that Michigan State lost to, thus strengthening the argument that the Spartans are ranked much too high.
The disrespect is nothing new for Group of Five programs, with countless others facing being overlooked on a yearly basis.
If there is any silver lining, the expanded College Football Playoffs were implemented to try and alleviate some of the Group of Five teams being overlooked and giving them a shot at winning it all so it is not always the same teams at the top of the mountain.
Tulane does still have a ways to go to get to the top of that mountain, but with Jon Sumrall at the helm, who has proven time and time again that he can win at any program, it could come sooner than later.
