Tulane Football Has Low Transfer Portal Ranking, but How Much Does That Translate?

The Tulane Green Wave could still make some additions in the transfer portal, but their class has its core for the most part. If one is going off of star ratings, then the Green Wave don’t have the shiniest class in the American. Currently, they sit at 15 commits, with four three-star players, good for No. 11 in the American conference in the 247 Team Portal Rankings. It’s a stark contrast from their No. 2 ranked portal classes in 2024 and 2025.

Now, off the bat, the list is already missing several Tulane commits, including three-star transfers WR Gabe Daniels, RB DJ Dugar, and RB Johnnie Daniels. Both Dugar and Daniels had 87-ratings out of high school, which is on the higher side of things. That would already put the Green Wave at seven three-star commits, which would surely stand to move them up in these rankings.

Then, let’s run through the three-star players the Green Wave picked up last season, which was a total of 34. Some were big players for Tulane: P Alec Clark, EDGE Harvey Dyson, TE Johnny Pascuzzi, DB LJ Green, EDGE Mo Westmoreland, TE Justyn Reid, EDGE Jordan Norman, DL Tre’Von McAlpine, DL Eliyt Nairne, C Jack Hollifield, DL Derrick Shepard Jr., WR Anthony Brown-Stephens, OG Jordan Hall, WR Omari Hayes, DT Santana Hopper, WR Jimmy Calloway, RB Maurice Turner, RB Zuberi Mobley, and Spear TJ Smith.

Then there are a bunch of three-star guys who didn’t play that much or didn’t play much at all: OL Mitch Hodnett, DL Armondous Cooley, QB Brendan Sullivan, S Dorion Jackson, DB KC Eziomume, LB Dallas Winner-Johnson, QB Donovan Leary, QB Kadin Semonza, DB Isaiah Wadsworth, and TE LeRon Husbands to name a few. Then there are some guys on that list that didn’t even remain at Tulane – like TJ Finley.

So, of the 34 total three-star guys last season, a decent number of them worked out well for the Green Wave. What that rankings system doesn’t account for is the number of guys on that list that are returning, though several are also transferring out. The returnees include LJ Green, Derrick Shepard, TJ Smith, and Armondous Cooley who have announced thus far. Several still haven’t made anything official, but never seemingly entered the transfer portal. There are a few guys on there who got injured, didn’t play at all, and are returning next season, like OL John Bock.

More than anything, while rankings serve as a good barometer to see how a program does year-by-year and against their peers, it’s an incredibly imperfect system. Guys will lose stars for transferring from P4 to G5s and will gain the converse if they head to the P4. There are as many five-star guys who just don’t work out. There are as many guys who didn’t receive any attention out of high school, and may have had a growth spurt, or just ended up in the right place, and haven’t received an updated ranking.

Look no further than linebacker Sam Howard, who was a zero-star player out of high school. He then received a bump to an 88-rated high three-star player upon transferring. It just goes to show how fickle this system ultimately is. Sure, the Green Wave had the No. 2 class in 2024 and 2025 and went to the American Conference championship both times. In 2024, they lost to Army, who doesn’t even have a transfer portal class to rank. This last season, they beat North Texas – who had the No. 10 ranked portal class in the conference. Tulane may be behind in the perception category, but the road to the conference title hasn’t shown too much adherence to that.