Tulane opens preseason AP Poll with a single vote, despite recent AAC and playoff run

Tulane will begin the 2026 college football season with less national noise than its recent results might suggest. In the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the Green Wave received a single vote, placing them just outside the ranked group that typically captures most of the early-season attention.

The ranking context is notable because Tulane’s last stretch has included both conference and postseason milestones. According to Yahoo Sports’ report on the preseason voting, Tulane won the American Athletic Conference Championship and made an appearance in the College Football Playoff in 2025. Even with that résumé, the Green Wave still did not emerge as a preseason focal point in the way that bigger-budget programs often do when expectations are set early.

Within the American Athletic Conference, the AP preseason voting featured Tulane as one of only a few teams receiving support. Yahoo’s account says Tulane was among three AAC schools that garnered votes, underscoring that the conference’s perceived national ceiling, at least in the early projection stage, is not being treated as uniformly high across its full membership.

The preseason AP ballot is not designed to predict individual game outcomes, but it does reflect who voters believe has the strongest combination of recent form and returning quality. Receiving a single vote suggests that, in the eyes of many voters, Tulane is more of a “watch closely” program than an automatic candidate for the sort of national ranking that often leads to higher visibility, earlier marquee-matchup narratives, and more attention to preseason award conversations.

Tulane’s challenge now is straightforward: convert that lack of external endorsement into on-field momentum. For teams outside the ranked tier, the early weeks often carry extra weight because the path back into national recognition usually requires sustained performances rather than a single standout result.

For the American Athletic Conference, Tulane’s preseason placement is also a referendum on how the league’s recent postseason credibility will be evaluated going forward. If Tulane can build from its 2025 accomplishments, it could strengthen the AAC’s argument that its top tier can match up to national title-level expectations, not only in conference championship terms but also in broader postseason positioning.

What to watch next is simple and practical: whether Tulane is able to translate its 2025 conference and playoff experience into enough early-season consistency to earn more than “one vote” by the time the first major AP updates arrive. If the Green Wave starts fast against its early slate, preseason respect may not be as slow to arrive as the voting implies, but it will not come automatically without results.