ESPN commentators, who were part of the company's sublicensing for College Football Playoff games broadcast on TNT, were visibly unhappy with the product on the broadcast during the Ole Miss Rebels' 41-10 win over the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi.
Jesse Palmer and Joe Tessitore openly questioned whether or not the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would've been a better matchup for Ole Miss than Tulane turned out to be in a rematch of a regular season game that was even less competitive this time around.
"This has been a completely non-competitive game," Tessitore prefaced before asking, "If this were Notre Dame, what kind of game would we have had?"
"Imagine how big this environment already is for this one and what that would have looked like if Notre Dame had that opportunity. We got a rematch of what we already saw (earlier this season). The scoreboard in this one is not much different than what we saw earlier in September," Palmer said.
"I think this is something that the committee needs to continue working out as they press forward."
Tulane and James Madison blow it for the Group of 5 in the CFP
Between the Green Wave's underwhelming effort at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and the James Madison Dukes going down by as many as 31 points in the first half against the Oregon Ducks, the CFP's first round went as poorly as possible for the Group of 5 conferences.
Sure, blowouts happen in the CFP regularly, but that isn't on the minds of network executives who are about to be burned by poor ratings because two of the first four games of the 2025/2026 slate were over by halftime.
ESPN is already selling you on accepting Notre Dame being shoehorned into these conversations in the future. For all we know, giving these lopsided games to TNT, when ESPN had the more competitive Miami Hurricanes-TAMU Aggies and Alabama Crimson Tide-Oklahoma Sooners matchups, may have been a way to big-league Turner Broadcasting while making the case against future G5 involvement in the CFP.
The worst-case scenario happened for Tulane and JMU, proving the doubters, of which there were many, correct. Especially when the Canes and Crimson Tide handled their business and proved they belong.
College Football made a long-term decision to ensure G5 competition matters, but network execs may make sure that decision isn't made again because of the hit to profits these blowouts will likely have on their bottom lines.