Tulane Green Wave Just Outside of Top 20 in Latest Power Rankings
Despite being off this past weekend, the Tulane Green Wave saw an increase in their stock with the loss of the Army Black Knights to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Now, with only one game left in the campaign, the Green Wave are one of two Group of 5 programs with a chance at making the College Football Playoff.
It would be a massive coup for the program and first-year head coach Jon Sumrall, who has shown he is capable of leading a team to victory no matter what conference his team resides in.
Sumrall has helped lead Tulane up the rankings in the eyes of the media, too, including Chris Vannini of The Athletic who has consistently raised the team up his weekly college football power rankings.
He did so again this week, moving them up from 22nd last Monday, to 21st in the latest iteration.
The curious thing about Vannini's rankings this week is that, even this late in the season, he has six programs with more losses than Tulane ranked higher, including the Alabama Crimson Tide who suffered their third loss of the year this week at the hands of the Oklahoma Sooners, a team that Tulane also lost to, but looked much more competitive than in the process.
The Crimson Tide lost their contest with the Sooners, 24-3, and were outmatched on both ends of the field for all 60 minutes. When the Green Wave played Oklahoma, they lost only 34-19 while remaining competitive throughout the contest. It also came when the Sooners were still in the top 20 of the national rankings.
The other five teams ranked higher than Tulane include the Colorado Buffaloes, Kansas State Wildcats, Texas A&M Aggies, South Carolina Gamecocks, and Ole Miss Rebels.
The only one of the six that has any real argument for being ranked higher is Kansas State, who account for one of the two losses the Green Wave have, though it also came much earlier in the year so the argument is not as strong as it once was.
The Buffaloes have skated by on hype, the Aggies lost to the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, the Gamecocks are on a five-game win streak but have lost to Alabama and the Rebels, and Ole Miss lost Saturday to the Florida Gators.
The case is there for Tulane to be ranked much higher than they are in power rankings, as well as the national rankings, but the disrespect for Group of 5 teams continues yet another week.
