Over the past few years, the Tulane Green Wave has become a major force in the American Conference. 

Heading into the 2025 regular season finale against the Charlotte 49ers, the team boasts an impressive record of 9-2 overall, with a 6-1 mark in conference play. For most teams, that would be a record-setting, program-defining season. For Tulane, that's just become the standard over the past few years.

The 2022 season ended with a conference title, a historic Cotton Bowl victory and a 12-2 overall record. 2023 and 2024 each resulted in appearances in the American Conference Championship Game. 2025 looks to bring much of the same, with Yulman Stadium serving as the host site for the title game if the Green Wave holds steady and knocks off the 1-10 49ers on Saturday.

There's even more history that could potentially be made, as this season is far from over in Uptown. Tulane has been the highest-ranked Group of Five team in the College Football Playoff rankings for two weeks now, which makes it the projected G5 participant in the CFP.

The road to the CFP looks fairly simple at this point: beat Charlotte, advance to the American championship, win that game, and the team should be in. With a loss, it's likely that the Green Wave's opponent in the game -- most likely the North Texas Mean Green -- will get the nod. There's still a threat from the James Madison Dukes out of the Sun Belt, depending on how their season ends.

As always, plenty can change until then... but isn't it nice to see that this has become the standard for the program?

The Green Wave has been building a consistently competitive program in Uptown and expects to be in the postseason picture each year. The constant discussion in the polls, the expectations both in the preseason and throughout the regular season, the growth in support from fans... it all points to a program that is steadily among the best in its conference.

Of course, it hasn't always been this way for Tulane, and there have been plenty of down years. There will undoubtedly be more rough seasons in the future. But for the Green Wave to maintain this level of success in the age of NIL and an extremely active transfer portal is a great sign.

That success can continue against Charlotte in what's expected to be a high-energy environment in New Orleans on Saturday night. A victory gives the Green Wave its third season with at least 10 wins in the last five seasons -- something that very few programs across all of college football have done. 

Let the Wave keep on rolling from here.