The Green Wave continue to remain one of the top non-Power 5 teams in the country, and they will go on with American Athletic Conference play against a team they first played more than a century ago: the Rice Owls.
As it is, the No. 22 Tulane (6-1, 3-0) is a double-digit favorite once again this Saturday at Rice (4-3, 2-1). This might be a tougher test for the Wave than one might expect, as the Owls have been fairly tough, especially as of late.
And although this is a long series in terms of time – 107 years – this will only be the 37th all-time meeting between them. Here, we share all the information with the lines, odds, TV information and the series history between the two schools:
TULANE at RICE
When: Saturday at 3 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
Last week: Tulane defeated North Texas, 35-28; Rice defeated Tulsa, 42-10.
Lines: Tulane -11.5 at Caesars Sportsbook. The Wave is -455 on the money line, and Rice is +345. (Line is as of late Monday morning on Caesars Sportsbook, which is the official odds partner of Bet.NOLA.com.)
Over / Under Total: 54.5
Series record: This will be the 37th meeting between the two schools, and it has been a lopsided one all time and most recently, as Rice leads the series, 15-20-1 and has won five of the past six meetings, although they have not played one another in 10 years. The Owls also won the first meeting played 107 years ago, 23-13, in Houston on Nov. 11, 1916.
In the most recent meeting, Rice won, 17-13, in Houston, as the Wave fell behind 17-3 just before halftime. Tulane’s defense stiffened, and Nick Montana hit Devon Breaux for a touchdown to cut it to 17-10 in the third quarter, but neither team could do much offensively the rest of the way.
The only points down the stretch came from Tulane’s Cairo Santos, who booted a 32-yard field goal with 10:14 remaining.
The last win for the Green Wave in the series came in 2010 in the Superdome with a whopping 54-49 score.