On ESPN’s College Football Playoff selection show last Sunday, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said his team would be playing with house money in its first-round matchup with Ole Miss after losing 45-10 to the Rebels in September.

He was right in one sense—almost no one outside the program expects the Green Wave to win in Oxford, Mississippi—but fundamentally wrong in another. If Tulane and James Madison fare poorly as heavy underdogs on the road, the opportunity for Group of Five conference schools in future playoff formats figures to be curtailed .

The selection show featured intense criticism of a format that allowed two teams outside the Power Four leagues to qualify for the 12-team field while Notre Dame , and to a lesser degree Texas and Vanderbilt , were left out.

Former Alabama

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