Debate Ignites as G5 Teams Crash the CFP Party
The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff was supposed to widen the tent, but Tulane and James Madison have lit a fuse instead; with the Green Wave slotted 11th and the Dukes at 12th after winning the American and Sun Belt titles, their inclusion over brands like Texas, Notre Dame, and BYU has become instant talk-radio fuel. Paul Finebaum has been pounding the table that the Group of Five is “like letting the Triple-A best team into the Major League playoffs,” insisting they have “no business” in the CFP. Booger McFarland went even further, saying “no one in America thinks James Madison or Tulane can win a championship,” and arguing that they are in only because the rules force at least one Group of Five champion into the bracket. Jordan Rodgers has resounded that frustration from the big-brand side, pointing out that Ole Miss “already demolished Tulane by 35 points” and asking, “Why run it back?”. Add in the fact that Ole Miss enters the rematch at 11-1 with home-field advantage, while Tulane is 11-2, and JMU rides an 11-game win streak after an 8-0 Sun Belt run, and you can understand why the bracket has become a referendum on whether automatic bids for G5 champions are a feature or a flaw.
Do They Belong? Why I Disagree With the ‘They Stole a Spot’ Narrative
I understand the frustration from blue-blood fan bases, but I don’t agree with the idea that Tulane and James Madison somehow stole spots they didn’t earn. The current format explicitly guarantees places to the five highest-ranked conference champions, and all the eye test handwringing ignores the reality that Tulane went 11-2 with an American title while JMU went 12-1, swept the Sun Belt at 8-0 and captured the league championship. One cannot preach that games matter all year and then move the goalposts when lower-resource programs cash in on that standard. Yes, the metrics say these teams are underdogs; the ESPN Football Power Index had Tulane and JMU just 54th and 28th nationally before the final weekend. However, the playoff was sold as a path, not a private club. Where I do side with Rodgers a bit is on the optics: when Ole Miss has already blasted Tulane 45-10 and is favored by multiple scores again, the committee is daring the Green Wave to prove they’re more than a scheduling quirk. If either Tulane hangs around in Oxford or JMU pushes Oregon deep into the fourth quarter, that competitive punch will speak louder than any Triple-A insult on television.
The Identity Shift in Tulane: Why Their Coaching Transition Matters Now More Than Ever
Tulane’s arc is exactly why I’m bullish on what this moment can mean for the Group of Five, even with turbulence coming on the sideline. The Green Wave have gone 43-12 over the last four seasons, an absurd 29-3 in league play since 2022, first riding Michael Pratt’s AAC-Offensive-Player-of-the-Year brilliance before retooling around a deeper roster and Jon Sumrall’s physical identity. Now Sumrall is off to Florida after delivering back-to-back American titles and this historic CFP berth, and Tulane has turned to Will Hall, a familiar face who previously coordinated the offense and just finished a stint as passing-game coordinator. On paper, that kind of continuity hire should keep the scheme and culture aligned, even as the roster turns over from the Pratt era to a more committee-driven attack. In the short term, there’s no denying that a staff in transition is walking into a buzzsaw; Ole Miss is 11-1, its only loss a road game at Georgia, and the Rebels have already proved they can choke down Tulane’s passing game to just 104 yards. If Tulane can stay within a score into the fourth quarter despite that mismatch and the distraction of an impending coaching handoff, it will validate not only the program’s resilience but the idea that G5 champions can absorb attrition and still trade punches with the SEC.
What This Means for Power Programs, and the Future of CFP Politics
For the Power Four heavyweights left out of the bracket, this year’s controversy is less about Tulane and JMU themselves and more about the message the committee is sending. Texas, Notre Dame, and BYU all had at-large cases built on tougher schedules, massive TV audiences, and, in Texas’ case, notable wins that still couldn’t overcome a bad loss and the automatic-bid math. When voices like Mattress Mack and Finebaum lean into the idea that the sport is better off simply plugging those brands into every TV window, what they’re really lobbying for is a ratings cartel, not a playoff. I think the healthier message is this: if you’re a major program, schedule aggressively, win your league, and you’ll be in, and if you fall short, you don’t get to blame Tulane for doing its job. At the same time, the burden on Tulane and James Madison is real, because if these first-round games turn into the kind of blowouts many predict, the anti-G5 lobby will weaponize that to attack automatic bids in the next round of CFP negotiations. That’s why this playoff isn’t just a Cinderella story; it’s a stress test for whether college football really wants a national tournament or just a slightly expanded invitational for the same old faces.
