Tulane Heading in Right Direction of Latest College Football Power Rankings
The Tulane Green Wave football team was on bye this past weekend, so they got to witness the chaos around the country from the comfort of their couch.
With three ranked vs. ranked matchups, the top 25 was going to be shaken up one way or another, but another four ranked teams, all on the road against unranked opponents, were defeated as well.
While Tulane would have loved to see a team such as the Boise State Broncos go down since they are the top-ranked Group of 5 team currently, they will certainly take the several upsets that occurred this weekend.
As a result, it should come as no surprise the Green Wave made a sizable move up ESPN’s college football power rankings.
Despite not playing, they moved into the No. 18 spot, up from No. 21.
“The Green Wave offensive line allowed eight sacks across a pair of September losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma. Since then, Tulane quarterbacks have been sacked just six times during the eight-game winning streak that vaulted the Green Wave (9-2) to No. 20 in this week's College Football Playoff rankings coming off of an idle weekend. Tulane is buoyed by one of the Group of 5's rising stars in freshman quarterback Darian Mensah and the AAC's leading rusher in Makhi Hughes. And both are succeeding this fall with the help of an offensive line that enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked 25th in sacks allowed while powering the nation's 10th-ranked rushing attack,” wrote Eli Lederman.
Riding an eight-game winning streak, Jon Sumrall’s group is 9-2 on the season and an undefeated 7-0 in the conference. If they can defeat the Memphis Tigers on Thanksgiving night, they will have wrapped up the ninth perfect conference performance in program history.
It would be back-to-back years that this was accomplished, the first time they have done that since 1929, 1930 and 1931 when they were part of the Southern Conference.
With a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game already clinched against the Army West Point Black Knights, Tulane will have a strong case to make the College Football Playoff.
It would be fascinating to see how the committee handles a two-loss conference champion compared to a three-loss team from the SEC, Big 10 or Big 12 during the seeding process.
Of course, the Green Wave still has to make that pressure a reality.
They are heading in the right direction in all of the polls, but a little more help will be needed from others to truly improve their odds.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.