Believe it or not, the Tulane Green Wave and the Ole Miss Rebels have quite the history on the gridiron. 

The Green Wave's football program was created back in 1893, and the team played a shortened season against just three other teams: the Southern Athletic Club, LSU and, yes, Ole Miss. That first-ever meeting between the two school saw the Rebels win by a score of 12-4. From then on, an early rivalry ensued. 

Tulane and Ole Miss faced off nearly every season up until 1910, with the Green Wave taking an 8-6 advantage over that time. Of course, football wasn't quite as high-scoring, intense or technical as it is now: nine of those games ended up being shutouts, and Tulane's 28 points against the Rebels in 1895 were the most among either team during that timespan.

The Green Wave asserted dominance once again from 1919 to 1939, winning 12 matchups in a row in that stretch of time. Four of those wins -- 1934, 1936, 1937 and 1939 -- came after both Ole Miss and Tulane joined the Southeastern Conference in 1932.

By all accounts, the Green Wave was the one of the top teams in the SEC in its earliest years. The program was named an SEC co-champion in 1934 and 1939, and it won the outright conference championship in 1949. In comparison, only Alabama (4) and Tennessee (4) had more outright championships or co-championships during that time. 

Then, the downfall of Tulane's ability to match other SEC programs of the time happened.

According to the Tulane Hullabaloo, beginning in the 1950s, former university president Rufus Harris made decisions that ultimately hindered the success of the school's football program. Harris decreased salaries for coaches, cut back on the number of available football scholarships and limited all coaches' opportunities to go out and find talent. While most other SEC football programs were continuing to grow, Tulane was slipping behind.

Unsurprisingly, the Green Wave struggled against rising powerhouse Ole Miss up until the university left the SEC ahead of the 1966 football season. 

The two rivals faced off each year from 1950 to 1965, and the Rebels recorded a lopsided 14-2 head-to-head record. After that, there really wasn't a need for the two teams to play each year, given the fact that they were in different conferences.

Tulane and Ole Miss renewed their rivalry to some extent, playing 22 times between 1974 and 1999. While the competition was a bit more even at first -- the teams went 3-3 against each other in their first six matchups -- the Rebels would ultimately take down the Green Wave on the field in 13 of their remaining 16 matchups and were awarded an additional win in 1983 following a forfeited victory by Tulane. 

Ole Miss added one more victory in 2000 -- a 29-point blowout in Oxford. Then... crickets. Since the turn of the century, the two once-rivals have faced off just four times. The Rebels have technically won every year but had to vacate their 2010 victory due to NCAA violations. If you consider the vacated win an on-field victory for Ole Miss -- since they technically did win by a score of 27-13 -- the Rebels have won 13 straight games against the Green Wave dating back to 1989.

Given the history between the two programs, it's easy to believe that they should renew their rivalry. That's unlikely to happen with the state that college football is in right now, but if Saturday ends up being an electric, heated competition, then maybe there will be a chance that these two programs will consider facing off more often.