Tulane as a Football Power

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Tulane, with its vaunted business school, made the brilliant decision in 1966 to leave the SEC, an even greater misstep than not hiring Rich Rodriquez after Tommy Bowden left. If Tulane had remained an SEC school, could it have become a Miami-type school as opposed to a Vandy? Tulane has an obvious built-in recruiting base and town that is "conducive" to enjoying college. Could Tulane, with the proper leadership -- not just coaching -- achieve what Miami has?--Aaron, Baton Rouge, La.

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This is one of the more fascinating questions to pop into my inbox in some time. The events behind Tulane's SEC exit occurred well before my time, so I'm not in a position to speak to the merits of that decision. I can certainly see, however, why you'd make the parallel. Miami and Tulane are fairly similar universities, both in their academic profile and their place in a major-city sports environment. Both fell into prolonged states of football purgatory after enjoying stints of prestige in the 1930s and '40s. (Their fortunes trailed off considerably after that, and in its last four seasons of SEC competition, the Green Wave went 6-33-1.) And like Tulane just a few years back, Miami's administration came darn close to dropping its football program before Howard Schnellenberger came in and took the place by storm in the late 1970s.

As we've seen over the years, virtually any school can turn itself into a contender with the right coach and a supportive administration, so my first instinct would be to say yes, Tulane could have enjoyed the same success. However, I'm not sure the lack of SEC affiliation was the reason they did not.

For one thing, Miami, just like Tulane, was itself an independent throughout its glory days of the '80s, and that freedom to schedule noteworthy opponents from around the country (Notre Dame, Penn State, Oklahoma) helped the Hurricanes build credibility. Meanwhile, it's not like Tulane hasn't had its share of good coaches over the years; the problem was they could not retain them. Larry Smith improved the Green Wave from 2-9 to 9-3 before leaving for Arizona (and eventually USC). North Carolina hired Mack Brown just for getting Tulane to go 6-6. And then there was Bowden following his undefeated season.

The question is, would these coaches have been more apt to stay had the school been in the SEC, or would they never have attained such success in the first place? My guess is the latter.

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