SportsLine predicts outcome of Ole Miss at Tulane

It’s only Week 2, but the Ole Miss Rebels better be ready to buckle up for the next few weeks. It’s not like 2022 where the Rebels had to wait until Week 5 against Kentucky to face a challenge. Saturday down in New Orleans, the college football world will learn a lot between Ole Miss and Tulane in their top 25 showdown. 

SportsLine, powered by CBS Sports, initially released their lines for Ole Miss/Tulane on Sunday and had the Rebels opening up as 3.5-point favorites. Since, lines have been moving throughout the week and have been leaning stronger towards Ole Miss’ side. At the time of this writing, SportsLine has them standing as seven-point favorites. 

However, on top of spreads SportsLine’s computers have simulated and generated their believed outcome of the game. What exactly is that outcome you ask? Well, SportsLine’s computers have determined that Ole Miss will pull out a close 31-24 victory and that the Rebels cover 50 percent of the time.

SportsLine’s projection model simulates every single snap of every college football game 10,000 times to come up with some of the most accurate projections available.   

It’s been one of the most highly anticipated non-conference games of the year ever since the 2022 season ended. As Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said earlier in the week, there may be no hotter program than the Green Wave. 

They’re fresh off a 10-win season and Cotton Bowl victory after winning just two games the year prior. Tulane has won 13 of their last 15 games dating back to the start of last season with a pair of victories over Power Five opponents. What an unbelievable and quick turnaround. Junior Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt has been through it all, he was slinging passes in Oxford when the Rebels gave them a memorable 61-21 beating.

For what it’s worth, the over/under was initially set at 61.5 but has been bumped up to 67 flat. 

"A great job by Willie (Fritz) for turning them around like that,” Kiffin previously said. “I’m sure that was one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of college football in one year. Really good coaching, good players. Usually when you have that type of turnaround, it usually means that you have a good quarterback too, which they do." 

No.20 Ole Miss is set to make the trek down to New Orleans to play against No.24 Tulane next Saturday Sept.9. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN2/ESPN+ or listened to on the Ole Miss Radio Network. Inside the Rebels will be on site to provide updates, notes, facts, observations and more.

"Obviously we have a tough ball game this weekend... Ole Miss is a very strong team,” Tulane head coach Willie Fritz said Tuesday. “They’re big, tall, long, fast. They really took care of business Saturday. We’re going to have to play a lot better than we did on Saturday."