The Tulane Green Wave didn't have much to play for outside of bragging rights in their first match against Ole Miss. With the College Football Playoff on the line, does that change everything?
When the Tulane Green Wave released their schedule for the 2025 college football season, the non-conference slate was daunting, to put it mildly. They would host the Northwestern Wildcats and Duke Blue Devils in Weeks 1 and 3 and then head to Oxford to play the Ole Miss Rebels. While the Blue Devils game mattered as much, or as little, as the one against the Rebels, it was clear that the emotions of that win in the most hostile environment Yulman Stadium has ever seen were a bit higher than a normal non-con win.
It was also clear that the size of two Power Four matchups left physical attrition on a team that was still getting to know each other. One with a goal to win an American conference championship. That goal meant that ultimately, none of the first four games mattered. But to the obvious onlooker, and undoubtedly to the team – as much as they tried to ignore outside noise – the Green Wave could be players for the College Football Playoff if they won two of those three. Then they won two of those three.
It turned the Ole Miss game, from a season goals perspective, into a shiny resume star that probably would have seen Tulane land in the first rankings. But with two P4 wins under their belt, a conference championship title, should they get there, would all but put them in the driver’s seat for a CFP berth. The players certainly didn’t head out of the tunnel at Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford thinking that the game didn’t matter.
But as things immediately went from bad to worse with a 23-3 deficit by half, down multiple starters, and half of the ones on the field hurting and bruised, was the team in the locker room with a do-or-die mentality? Only the players know that.
Even if they didn’t have that thought, it’s impossible to think that those Tulane players took every snap with the same internal fire and motivation that they’ll have heading into this rematch in the first round of the CFP with the Rebels. The Green Wave was playing with a bit of house money in Week 4. They’re playing for all the marbles in the postseason. Since that loss in Oxford, Tulane suffered another critical road bump against the UTSA Roadrunners.
Every game became do-or-die in their road to the conference championship, and they played with an urgency they hadn’t shown yet as the season winded down, especially against Memphis, Temple, and finally in their title win over North Texas. They head back to Mississippi with a lot to prove from their first trip there, but they head there as battle-tested champions that have everything to play for this time. That fight will pack a different punch this Saturday.