Tulane’s Pac-12 Fate May Rest With Current Conference Rival’s Decision

If the Tulane Green Wave truly wants to join the Pac-12 Conference, they better hope this current conference rival says yes, too.

Dec 3, 2022; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Tulane Green Wave helmet on the field against the UCF Knights during the first half at Yulman Stadium. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

The Pac-12 Conference had another meeting on Friday, per Oregon-based columnist John Canzano, as the six schools that will form the league in 2026 met via video conference.

Realignment was the topic of discussion, as it has been for quite some time, even before the league formally invited four Mountain West schools last week.

The league is reportedly turning its attention to another wave of members, as the Pac-12 needs at least eight members by the start of the 2026-27 athletic year to remain a conference.

For more than a week, those rumors have swirled around schools in the American Athletic Conference, including the Tulane Green Wave.

Of course, Tulane can’t just up and join the Pac-12 without an invitation. And, to get an invitation, the Pac-12 has to want Tulane.

On Friday, Yahoo!Sports writer Ross Dellenger wrote an expansive piece about what’s next in the Pac-12 quest to rebuild itself. But it wasn’t really about the Pac-12 per se. The story was really about Tulane’s AAC rival, Memphis.

Dellenger wrote that Memphis, of all schools, may make a decision that “…could completely reshape the lower half of the Football Bowl Subdivision.”

Why?

He wrote that Memphis is valuable to both the AAC and to the Pac-12 for several reasons. Memphis is a Top 10 market for college football viewership. The football program is now consistently successful and its home, the Liberty Bowl, is getting big improvements. Along with its basketball profile, the school’s NIL endeavors are funded by a major gift from Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, which is based in Memphis.

Dellenger also wrote about the reasons for Memphis to take the plunge or to stay where it is. But he also quoted a source that appeared to make it clear that the fates of two other American schools — Tulane and USF — may well be tied to what Memphis decides to do. The source even intimated that the trio might see each other as a “package deal.”

“They may not want to go, but they don’t want the other guy to go without them,” the source told Dellenger.

Meanwhile, the realignment rumor mill keeps spinning.

Earlier in the week UTSA football coach Jeff Traylor confirmed on his radio show that his school was talking with the Pac-12, but nothing was imminent.

Also, the AAC is reportedly talking with Air Force about joining the league so it can have all three service academies in the same conference for football.

Tulane is reportedly planning for what might happen next. Matt Brown at Extra Points, a newsletter devoted to the business of college sports, wrote that Tulane was one of three American schools he was aware of that had hired a consulting company or a third-party firm to help prepare them for potential realignment in the Pac-12 or other conferences.