The Tulane Green Wave got a shocking gift late in the offseason when Jake Retzlaff transferred out of BYU. By then, most teams had their QB situations resolved, but Tulane was able to land an impact player who totally reshapes their outlook.
According to ESPN, they're now a borderline playoff team. Insider Heather Dinich says that they're 16th out of 32 possible legitimate playoff contenders, which is good. Why are they? Because they have a really good schedule with a ton of winnable games.
The hardest matchup they have is a September 20 visit to Ole Miss, another College Football Playoff contender. "The Green Wave will again have a chance to impress the committee with a tough nonconference game after coming up painfully short against Kansas State and Oklahoma last season. ESPN's FPI gives Ole Miss a 78.1% chance to win -- the only opponent Tulane has less than a 50% chance of beating," Dinich said.
Out of all the games on the schedule, as of now, Tulane is favored by BPI to win them all except that one. Of course, that doesn't mean they're going to go unbeaten or suffer just one loss, as plenty are close in ESPN BPI, but it does mean they're poised to finish with a good record and possibly sneak in as a Group of 5 champion.