Tulane is back in contention College football five-man group show This season after Friday’s victory over Memphis, a result that shakes the title picture in America once again. The Green Wave (7-2, 4-1) were able to thwart the Tigers’ comeback attempt in the fourth quarter behind 332 yards passing and three touchdowns from Jake Retzlaff.
No team from the group of five was seeded for Tuesday’s preliminaries College football playoff rankings From the selection committee; However, Memphis (8-2, 4-2) was ahead of the rest of the competition in the picture and could have been placed 12th in the bracket.
Entering Saturday’s games, teams with one loss in conference play include North Texas (8-1), Navy (7-1), USF (7-1), Tulane and East Carolina (5-3). Assuming Tie-breaking scenarios in America Play begins in a few weeks, and the conference first looks at where one of the tied teams is seeded in the latest playoff standings. If that team is undefeated on the final weekend of regular-season conference play, it will be declared a participant in the tournament title game.
After USF’s win over UTSA on Thursday night, Alex Golesh and the Bulls essentially play an elimination playoff game next weekend at Navy. On the heels of three straight wins, North Texas is in great shape now with an open date this weekend and clinches a spot in the US tournament with wins over UAB, Rice and Temple.
East Carolina suffered a straight-up loss to Tulane, throwing the Buccaneers back into the mix. They host Charlotte on Saturday before concluding the season against Memphis, UTSA and FAU in conference play.
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The most likely conference championship game in America after Tulane’s win over Memphis is North Texas vs. USC on December 5 if both teams win given where we expect the selection committee to rank both teams.
Tulane has a chance, too, after ending Memphis’ 11-game winning streak at home.
“I’m very proud of our guys for their resilience,” Tulane coach John Sumrall said. “It was great to see our team’s reaction (after last week’s loss to Texas-San Antonio). Bad things are going to happen sometimes. You just have to keep showing up.”
In theory, we could see a three-team tie for first place with North Texas, USF and Tulane assuming East Carolina fails to win and USF beats Navy on November 15.
If that happens, one of North Texas’ title game spots will be guaranteed since the Mean Green beat the Bulls head-to-head and the other will be determined by the selection committee’s penultimate poll on Dec. 2 based on USF and Tulane’s seeding.
Although data on one loss to James Madison and San Diego State was not provided by the selection committee earlier this week, these are the potential conference champions from the Sun Belt and Mountain West who could be ranked higher than the All-American winner a few weeks from now.
JMU (7-1, 5-0) had won six straight into Saturday’s matchup with Marshall, its only loss this season coming to Louisville, which the selection committee pegged as the second-best team in the ACC behind Virginia in its top rankings.
The Aztecs (7-1, 4-0) are flying under the radar in the Mountain West with an unblemished conference mark, their only setback coming on Sept. 6 at Washington State. San Diego State faces Hawaii in Week 11, before playing Boise State and New Mexico down the stretch, three six-win teams that will bolster this team’s resume if they can win.
There’s no guarantee the winner of the American will get a playoff bid to the Group of Five given the hot streaks of JMU and San Diego State. After Saturday’s matches, the selection committee must provide greater transparency this week on who they believe will come out on top in the Group of Five with so few games to play.