Tulane Green Wave Still Predicted to be Outside Looking in On CFP
With the release of the first official College Football Playoff rankings last Tuesday, everyone searched the top 25 high and low, but the Tulane Green Wave were questionably missing.
One week later, the Green Wave have notched another dominant win, this time to the tune of a 52-6 blowout of the Temple Owls, but the question remains: is it enough for the committee?
Group of Five programs have been overlooked for many years now, and that continues to be the case today, as with last week's rankings, there were only two in the top 25, the Boise State Broncos and the Army Black Knights.
A recent article from Austin Mock for The Athletic predicts more of the same from tonight's rankings reveal, with those two teams from above still holding firm in the top 25, and with Tulane still on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff, ranking 28th.
It will be an interesting development if the Green Wave goes another week without being considered one of the top 25 teams for the College Football Playoffs, especially now that they have entered the AP Poll at 25th and sit just eight votes shy of 25th in the Coaches Poll.
Outside of two losses to ranked Power Four opponents early in the year, by only a combined 22 points no less, Tulane has dominated the field each and every week, holding opponents to 20 or fewer points six times and 10 or fewer points five times.
That dominance has helped the Green Wave massively outscore their opponents' combined scoring output on the year 410-187, well over doubling their opponents' output, even with the two losses.
With only two games left on the schedule for Tulane, there are not many opportunities remaining to prove their worth to the College Football Playoff committee.
Should the Green Wave win out and make their way to the American Athletic Conference Championship game against the Black Knights (also assuming they win out), Tulane should easily be considered the favorite in that matchup, even with Army being undefeated as their schedule has been one of the weakest in the country with Mock ranking their strength of schedule 134th.
It is a peculiar situation that the Green Wave and first-year head coach Jon Sumrall find themselves in, but if there is one thing that they can do to change anyone's mind, it is to just keep winning.
