Few predictions, if any, have not had Ole Miss winning an easy game to open the College Football Playoff over Tulane. Those on the ‘College GameDay Podcast,’ though, did wonder if the Green Wave could keep it close with the Rebels on Saturday.

ESPN’s Rece Davis, Pete Thamel, and Dan Wetzel previewed and predicted No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 11 Tulane earlier this week, with all three going with the Rebels. Still, both sides have a lot going on both on and off the field as they go into the CFP.

“A fascinating game in Oxford, as Pete Golding’s first game as a head coach,” Davis said. “Now, they go and they welcome in Tulane, a team they’ve already throttled. A team whose head coach is on his way to Florida, a team that has contrasting styles in the way that the former, or soon-to-be former, head coach has handled their exits, you know.”

In answering first, Thamel did predict another win for Ole Miss, which beat Tulane at 45-10 back on September 20. However, he did say that the final score could be kept closer this time around by the Green Wave.

“I don’t think this game will be as lopsided as the first game was. Honestly, I just think Tulane has gotten a lot better as the year has gone on. Since they laid that dinosaur egg in San Antonio sometime around mid-October, they’ve really played well and shown some fight,” Thamel said. “It’ll be an interesting test for Ole Miss. There’s been a lot going on, right, and you have coaches coming in and out, you’ve got, you know, a lot of tumult that’s happened there. So, look, Ole Miss is much better. They’ve shown they’re much better…I mean, I think Ole Miss is going to win, but I think Tulane keeps it closer than the blowout in the first game.”

Wetzel then also went with a pick of the Rebels. And, considering all things since the end of their regular season, he’s looking forward to what should be quite the scene tomorrow evening in The ‘Sip.

“I would expect Ole Miss to win. Tulane has gotten a lot better, and it’s a really good team. The American was, like, a real battle to get through that, so this is a good team, this is a good Group of Five representative, to me. But, we have seen this game. There’s too much talent at Ole Miss,” Wetzel said. “I also think that this is going to be a day for Ole Miss fans…Lane leaving put them in all sorts of – you know, they were in their feelings a little bit, understandably. This is a chance, like a rally almost, to sit there and say, hey, we’re still here, we’re really excited. I mean, this is a huge moment for this program.

“They are hosting a playoff game – a program at Ole Miss that has not had anything like that, that has rarely been involved in true national contention. I think this is going to be a very, very fired up, emotional in a positive way, almost like a pep rally kind of day in Oxford, and they say, look, we don’t need Lane Kiffin. Forget it. You know, we all we got, we all we need, and they’re going to go out and show that and play with that emotion against a pretty good Tulane team. So, I’ll take Ole Miss because of that, in a big scene and a deserved one for Rebel fans who really, you know, got the rug pulled out from underneath them on the season when Lane Kiffin left.”

Finally, Davis placed the final pick of the three, also going with Ole Miss. But, to at least play some devil’s advocate, he did wonder what kind of disaster it would be if the Green Wave kept it close, or, worse, won outright, over the Rebels.

“I’m taking Ole Miss too. I think Ole Miss wins decisively. Ole Miss has had far much more turmoil than Tulane, but Tulane has had its share of change as well with everything going on with Sumrall, you know, holding down the fort at two places. I’m going to say the talent wins out, and Golding gets his first win,” Davis said. “But I am going to take you to negative town for just a second. What if Tulane wins? If Tulane wins, that’s an existential crisis for Ole Miss, because, immediately, Golding is on the hot seat – immediately. I know Keith Carter would say otherwise, but, if Ole Miss loses this game, after having beaten Tulane by 35 points earlier, SEC versus American, home field versus road team, new coach that everybody in the stadium is behind and happy about versus coach on his way out the door? If they lose, there will be the outcry – panic hire, wrong man for the job, not a long-term, what are we going to do next?

“And the mountain is going to be gargantuan for Pete Golding. So, it’s a playoff game. There are plenty of stakes involved just by virtue of the fact that, oh, by the way, for all of this stuff going on, Ole Miss is trying to win the national championship…Ole Miss is trying to win the national championship, okay. You lose this game, it comes at a catastrophic price. So, a lot of pressure if this game is close. If this game gets close late, a lot of pressure on the Rebels. I don’t think it’ll be close. I think Ole Miss wins, but not as badly as it did the first time.”

The opinions varied on how close this one would actually be kept by Tulane. Yet, in the end, Ole Miss was the clear consensus, as they, with that, would advance in the CFP to play in the Sugar Bowl in what’d be a regular-season rematch against Georgia.