Tulane and Mississippi, teams that share a long history, will square off for the second time this season when they meet Dec. 20 in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
The winner in Oxford, Mississippi, will be matched against No. 3 seed Georgia in the Jan. 1 quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
The Rebels beat Tulane 45-10 in Oxford on Sept. 20 and have won 14 in a row in the series since last losing to the Green Wave in 1988. It will be the 75th meeting of the teams since 1893. Mississippi leads the series 45-29.
Both teams are in the playoff for the first time. Mississippi (11-1) received an at-large bid and is the No. 6 seed. Tulane (11-2) earned a bid for winning the American Conference championship and is seeded 11th.
Pete Golding will be coaching his first game for Mississippi since replacing Lane Kiffin, who left for LSU last Sunday. Golding said he sees good and bad in playing a rematch. He and his staff know the makeup and tendencies of the opponent, and they also know the Green Wave are hot.
“That feels like years ago at this point," Golding said of the first game. "It was early in the season and they've played really well lately, and they're coming off a really good game and got some confidence from winning the conference championship. We know we'll have our work cut out for us.”
Tulane's Jon Sumrall, whose hiring at Florida was also announced last week, will coach the Green Wave in the CFP. Sumrall was Mississippi's linebackers coach in 2018.
“We’re playing with house money a little bit, right?” Sumrall said on ESPN. “For us, you only get one shot at this. Have no regrets, let it all hang out and enjoy the opportunity. Take it all in, give it everything you've got. Play together, play as a team, have fun going through this experience. There's nothing we're going to do other than give our best effort to this opportunity and I look forward to watching our guys compete.”
Georgia (12-1) received a first-round bye for the second straight year. Last year, the Bulldogs were No. 2 and played Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, losing 23-10 to the eventual national runner-up Fighting Irish. The game marked Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton’s first career start.
Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said he wouldn't use the 30 days between the SEC championship game and Sugar Bowl as an excuse for falling flat against Notre Dame.
“I think that’s what the general public and the people on the outside world want to say, that the layoff had to do with it,” Smart said. “I think it had something to do with a good football team we played against.”
The 2025 Bulldogs locked up their first-round bye with a 28-7 win over Alabama in the SEC championship game Saturday. Georgia will be making its 13th Sugar Bowl appearance, tied for the second most all-time.
Smart said he'll follow the same plan as last year to prepare for whichever team the Bulldogs face.
“We’ll treat those teams as equals,” he said. “We’ll have coaches assigned to them. Coordinators will look at both. But we’ll split our staff in half, look hard at both teams, dive into their seasons.”
Mississippi's only loss this season was to Georgia, 43-35 on the road Oct. 18. The Rebels finished with five straight wins as speculation swirled about whether Kiffin would leave for another job.
In the Rebels' win over Tulane in September, Trinidad Chambliss threw for two touchdowns, Kewan Lacy added a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs. The game was Chambliss' second career start. The transfer from Division II Ferris State was 17-of-27 passing for 307 yards while adding 112 yards on 14 rushes.
Tulane managed only 282 yards of total offense and turned the ball over on downs three times in the second half. Jake Retzlaff, after an 0-for-9 start, finished 5 of 17 for 56 yards. Tulane went on to win eight of its next nine games, including the 34-21 victory over North Texas for the American title.
