Tulane, LSU bowl bonanza fills in for extinct rivalry

So LSU is going to a bowl game, too.

Isn’t that adorable?

Don’t we all remember growing up and looking forward to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl at New Year’s?

Not really.

We do remember looking forward to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. And that’s where Tulane will be playing USC at the same time that LSU plays Purdue in that Cheez-It thing in Disneyworld beginning at noon Monday.

If ever there was a season for Tulane and LSU to face each other and enable their fan bases to resume poking fun at one another, this would be it.

It would have been more fun for the Green Wave in the midst of a season for the ages while the Tigers merely had a nice bounce-back season under first-year head coach Brian Kelly.

Nonetheless it would have been fun for both sides.

But it’s going to be a fun way to the New Year nonetheless.

It used to be that Tulane and LSU played each other every season, alternating between sites between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Each season fans of the winning team would ride triumphantly around the grounds of Norby’s bar Uptown, pushed around in wheelbarrows by fellow patrons who backed the losing team.

LSU fans got pushed around Norby’s most frequently because their team generally pushed around the Green Wave team, but Tulane periodically had memorable moments as well.

It was a good-natured rivalry.

Long-time Times-Picayune columnist Angus Lind would annually produce a “Karnak” column, inspired by an old Johnny Carson character on the Tonight Show (Google him, kids), poking fun at both schools, teams and sets of fans.

Those were the days.

Karnak always made sure that the barbs were equally distributed between the long-time rivals.

This has been a really good football season for both teams. Both have exceeded expectations – and the Green Wave have actually exceeded the Tigers.

We’re splitting hairs here, but the Green Wave did win their conference championship (American Athletic) while the Tigers were the runners-up in theirs (SEC).

Tulane is No. 16 in the College Football Playoff rankings, one spot ahead of LSU.

This season truly would have been a season unlike any other if this group of Green Wave and this group of Tigers had played one another.

They could have met in their once traditional season-ending spot in late November, as a tune-up for their conference title games.

What a wheelbarrow race that would have produced.

Theoretically they could have played in the Cotton Bowl, but the stars didn’t align.

So the Green Wave will face USC and the Tigers will face Purdue. They will be battling simultaneously just as they did in their conference championship games a month ago when Tulane beat UCF at Yulman Stadium and LSU lost to Georgia in Atlanta.

These rivals have played each other 90 times since 1904. LSU has won 63 games, Tulane has won 20 and there were seven ties.

They have met just two times when both teams have been ranked.

In 1936 No. 2 LSU defeated No. 19 Tulane 33-0 in Tiger Stadium, and in 1949 No. 13 LSU defeated No. 10 Tulane 21-0 in Tulane Stadium.

In 1973 Tulane ended a streak of 24 consecutive seasons without a victory when it prevailed 14-0 in Tulane Stadium.

That game was played in front of what was the largest crowd ever to witness a night college football game in the South.

LSU has won the last 18 meetings. Tulane’s last win came in 1982, which gave the Green Wave two consecutive victories and three in four meetings.

But gradually the practicality of the annual series faded as the gap between the haves and have-nots in college football has widened.

The Green Wave and the Tigers haven’t met since Halloween in 2009.

We don’t know when they will next meet on a football field – or even if they will ever meet again.

As for the 2022 teams we’re left to imagine what would have happened if they had met head to head while we watch them both compete on big stages Monday afternoon.

Maybe they’ll both prove worthy of wheelbarrow rides.