The College Football Playoff committee unveiled a new batch of rankings Tuesday, Nov. 18 with two weeks remaining in the regular season. When the first five teams were revealed, a familiar face from years
past made their first appearance of the 2025 season — the Tulane Green Wave.
Tulane (8-2, 5-1 American) appeared as the No. 24 team in the rankings. The Green Wave replaced South Florida as the highest-ranked team in the American Conference, and as one the fifth highest-ranked conference leaders, they found themselves positioned as the No. 12 seed in the current mock bracket. At the moment, Tulane is slated to face Texas Tech in Lubbock in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
“First and foremost, the American is a really good conference this year, a really top heavy conference,” committee chair Hunter Yurachek said in a media teleconference Tuesday night. “Then you look at Tulane’s schedule, the fact that they went outside of their conference and played three power four schools in Northwestern, Duke, and Ole Miss, winning two of those three games, then a very impressive win at Memphis and a win against East Carolina, which is really coming on late. That’s really what the committee saw with regards to Tulane as a team that checks in at 24 this week.”
Tulane’s playoff path becomes much clearer because of its No. 24 ranking earned Tuesday night. The Green Wave now essentially control their own destiny for their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance. One revelation of the ranking is 8-2 Tulane is above 9-1 Sun Belt favorite James Madison in the rankings, meaning the Green Wave would likely seal a spot as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions by simply winning out. Yurachek elaborated on the rationale for the Green Wave’s position over James Madison in the rankings.
“I think that was the main differentiator between when we had some discussions about the group of six teams — and James Madison was in that discussion this week — it’s really their strength of schedule,” Yurachek said. “They played one power four team, and they lost that game at Louisville 28-14. Then you look at the strength of Tulane’s schedule, playing three power four teams. They lost to, our 6th-ranked team in Ole Miss, but they beat Duke and beat Northwestern. They’ve got wins also in the league, in the American, a very strong league, against Memphis and East Carolina. The loss versus UTSA is a metric that is on Tulane’s schedule. We have a lot of respect for James Madison and the team that they are, especially they’re really good on the defensive side of the ball. But the strength of schedule is probably the biggest differentiator between Tulane and James Madison at this time.”
The other revelation of Tulane’s ranking is the Green Wave essentially control their own destiny to make, and host, the American Conference Championship Game. The American title race is an interesting picture right now, with four 1-loss teams in conference play — 6-1 Navy, 5-1 North Texas, 5-1 Tulane, and 5-1 East Carolina. The problem, which is quite common in division-less conferences, is the lack of matchups between that 4-team grouping. North Texas defeated Navy 31-17 on Nov. 1 and Tulane bested East Carolina 26-19 on Oct. 9, and those are the only matchup combinations of these four teams all season.
Let’s say Tulane is tied at 7-1 with Navy or North Texas in a two-team tiebreaker (Tulane would get the edge over ECU in a two-time tiebreaker due to head-to-head). Lacking a head-to-head matchup, the American utilizes tiebreaker 10.5.3 which states, “If there is no head-to-head result, and one of the tied teams was ranked in the latest available CFP Selection Committee rankings and doesn’t lose in the final weekend of regular-season conference play, it will be declared a championship game participant.” If another American team is ranked, tiebreaker 10.5.5 is employed, stating, “If there is no head-to-head result, and both tied teams are ranked in the latest available CFP Selection Committee rankings, the higher-ranked tied team that doesn’t lose in the final weekend of the conference regular season will be a championship game participant.”
This same concept is used to determine the host site per tiebreakers 10.9.2 and 10.9.5, so Tulane will likely host the American Championship if it simply wins out — unless another 1-loss team like North Texas or Navy surpasses it in the CFP rankings.
If Tulane is tied with any combination of Navy, North Texas, and East Carolina at 7-1, the multi-team tiebreakers will be enacted. Since there is no round-robin grouping between three or four of these teams, tiebreaker 10.6.3 comes into play, stating, “If the highest-ranked of the tied teams in the latest available CFP Selection Committee rankings doesn’t lose in the final weekend of regular-season conference play, it will be declared a championship game participant.”
With the American placing such a high emphasis on CFP rankings in its conference championship determination process, Tulane is the ultimate winner Tuesday night. The Green Wave are ahead of North Texas, Navy, and East Carolina in the rankings, and thus are in prime position for not only a championship spot, but hosting duties should they win out.
Tulane will be favored in its two remaining contests, traveling to 5-5 Temple on Nov. 22 before concluding vs. 1-9 Charlotte on Nov. 29. Win both, and Tulane should qualify for its fourth-straight American Conference Championship, with Yulman Stadium serving as the backdrop for the third time in four years.
The full committee rankings are as follows:
