Can this Tulane team be the school’s greatest ever?

Tulane football is one win away from being a 12-2 Cotton Bowl champion. Would hitting that mark make the 2022-23 team its greatest to date?

Let’s not beat around the bush: the Tulane Green Wave has done very little to impact the history of college football. In fact, the program has been so mediocre that it’s only seen three seasons with 10 wins or more (not including this current one).

With that said, it isn’t overly difficult to narrow down the greatest season Tulane football has ever had. Of the few candidates, one easily stands out: the 1998-99 season.

In 1998, the Green Wave finished its year with a perfect 12-0 record. The run was so dominant that only one win was decided by under 10 points. In the time since that outstanding season, Tulane has failed to even sniff anything like it—that is until this 2022-23 squad came along.

Today, the Green Wave is entering the Cotton Bowl at 11-2. With one more victory, it will not only have tied its 1998 win count but also its highest single-season win count ever. Would that be enough to label this season as Tulane’s best? No.

However, there are multiple factors that can potentially change that answer, most namely the strengths of the two schedules and the accolades attached to them. So let’s take a look at those before making any declarations.

Strengths of Both Schedules

It doesn’t exactly require a college football historian to know that most of what we currently refer to as “smaller competition” wasn’t any bigger 25 years ago. So in that regard, neither schedule will leave too many shuddering in fear.

However, the 1998 Green Wave faced virtually no “big dogs,” with its largest foe coming in the Liberty Bowl—BYU, a WAC team that finished 9-5 on the season. Beyond that, Tulane football only encountered two winning squads, Southern Mississippi and Louisville (both finished the year 7-5).

As for this year’s team, it has met—and beaten—multiple ranked opponents. Both Cincinnati (finished 9-4) and UCF (9-4 as of Dec. 23) held spots in the CFP rankings as they fell to the Green Wave. Even the Kansas State Wildcats, who are now ranked in the CFP committee’s top 10, met the same fate back in September.

With all of that in mind, it seems safe to say that the strength-of-schedule category goes to the 2022 bunch (the upcoming meeting with a top-10 USC team confirms that all the further).

Season Accolades

As we covered at the beginning, it’s pretty difficult to have an unbeaten season and it not be memorable—especially if the season comes from a historically unfortunate program. Knowing that makes the 1998 run all the more elite.

That is perhaps the main thing that it has over 2022; with two losses, it is nearly impossible to be as greatly admired at face value. However, that is just about where the list ends when discussing the superior impacts that the unbeaten team’s accolades have made.

Looking at the 2022 bunch, the lack of a perfect record is more excusable when remembering its aforementioned strength of schedule (and the fact that one of the losses was somewhat “canceled out” by a rematch that it convincingly won). I mean, let’s be real: this squad would have also gone unbeaten if it had the 1998 slate instead.

Not only that, but while both teams have conference titles under their belts, only this year’s had to endure a championship game to obtain it; and said game serving as the previously established rematch didn’t make it any easier.

And, assuming that Tulane football wins the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2, it will also have a larger bowl win than the 1998 group had after it took the less-renowned Liberty Bowl.

So to summarize, the 2022 Green Wave either has or can soon have the following: the same win count as the 1998 Wave, a more meaningful conference title than the 1998 Wave, and a better-quality bowl win than the 1998 Wave—all while playing a noticeably tougher schedule.

I can’t speak for Tulane fans, but after learning all of this, I know which season I’d rather see my team have. I also know which one I’d go on to call “greater.”