Utah is currently leading the Pac 12. They'd get in as champs. Not sure if you're saying its unbelievable that they're in the field or sent to us
To deflate Tulane's resume vs Top 25, we should root against Arizona, USM and ECU. Arizona is at #25 and could fall out just from playing Abilene Christian and Hawaii. USM is at at #21. ECU is on border at #24. Taking those teams out of Top 25 makes Tulane 3-1 vs top 25 with the one loss vs us. Tightens the gap somewhat
Also, keeping Southeastern in the top 50 helps us and hurts them. SLU went 2-0 vs Tulane and 1-2 vs us.