David Cariello is traveling like a VIP to Tulane University’s College Football Playoff game versus the Ole Miss Rebels this Saturday in Oxford, Mississippi. But the extravagance, he says, is only out of necessity.
As the owner of Campus Connection, the 45-year-old Tulane apparel store on the edge of the university’s Uptown campus, Cariello has a lot on his plate these days. When Tulane won the American Conference Championship game earlier this month, sales went into overdrive.
Cariello can’t afford to be away from the shop for very long, but he also can’t miss the chance to see customers at the game. So he and his son are joining a small group of game attendees that chartered a same-day private flight from the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
Campus Connection employee Sheila Fulks prepares Tulane Green Wave merchandise inside the local shop as demand grows ahead of the College Football Playoff, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. “RMFW” on the sign is a reference to Green Wave’s coach Jon Sumrall’s profane variation of the school’s “Roll Wave” catchphrase. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
“I’m leaving right after the game to be back here at the store or in front of my computer in case we win so I can order Sugar Bowl merch,” he said.
While Cariello isn’t the only one flying private to the game, many more Tulane fans will either be using commercial airlines or hitting the road.
In fact, it’s fair to say there will be a literal “green wave” heading five hours’ north on Interstate 55 this weekend. The students, faculty, staff, alumni and super fans who nabbed some of the 3,500 tickets made available to Tulane are driving their own vehicles, hopping on chartered buses, or hiring drivers to take them there and back.
Some are paying for lodging. Others are crashing on friends’ couches in Oxford, a small university town with relatively few hotel rooms, which are all going for premium prices this weekend. The Tulane football team and some of its closest supporters are flying to Memphis and will be making the hour-plus drive to and from Oxford on game day.
Mike Etheridge, Stacie Goeddel, Dina Riviere and Bill Riviere tailgate before Tulane University’s homecoming football game on Nov. 15, 2025 at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans.
For many making the trip, the excitement is hard to describe.
“This might be a bigger deal than the Cotton Bowl in 2023 because there’s a chance to keep advancing,” said Dina Riviere, who is driving up Friday. “Whether half the country thinks we deserve to be there or not, this game is putting us on a whole other level.”
Group travel
Some Tulane football fans will be turning the trip into a long weekend. Others, like Claudette Bienvenu and 13 of her friends, are being efficient about it.
The group of longtime Tulane supporters hired a driver and rented a 14-passenger Sprinter minivan to make the trip first thing Saturday morning and come back after the game.
Ten hours on the road, plus five or more in Oxford, makes for a long day, but the plan has its benefits. The friends have the option to start the party early on the drive up and either celebrate or drown their sorrows on the way home. Bienvenue said she doesn’t expect this particular group to get very wild, though.
A sign congratulating new Tulane football coach Will Hall is displayed outside Chris’s Specialty Foods in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
“At our age, some of us actually may be taking naps,” she said.
Others are making similar arrangements.
Adam Laurie, a port executive, Tulane grad and adjunct professor, has organized a 35-person bus to make the trip Saturday.
He said his wedding anniversary on Sunday was the main reason he wanted to get to and from Oxford on the same day, but the pricey hotel rooms were another factor. An onboard bathroom on the Hotard bus his group chartered is another essential.
“We’re not going to be in the Grove to tailgate for very long, so we wanted the opportunity to crack some beers on the drive up — and we don’t want to lose time making pit stops,” Laurie said.
“It’s like ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’” he said, referring to the classic comedy about trying to get home on a crazy holiday weekend. “Everybody is trying to get there to cheer on the Wave, but the number of rooms in Oxford is small and well over-priced this weekend, so everyone’s finding workarounds.”
Divided households
New Orleans and Oxford have strong connections, so many people traveling up for the game may have friends or family in the area.
Some of these arrangements mean Tulane and Ole Miss fans may be traveling together, staying together and attending the game together.
Scott Clark, native of the Oxford area, earned his undergraduate degree at Ole Miss before moving to New Orleans to work at Tulane and to get his MBA there.
On Friday, he is driving home for the holidays, and he bought a ticket for Saturday’s game, where he’ll represent both schools, possible wearing an Ole Miss shirt and Tulane hat as he’s done for previous matchups.
“There’s a lot of overlap and affinity between both schools,” he said. “Everyone I know from Oxford loves New Orleans, and Tulane is a big part of that. And people in New Orleans feel the same way, calling Oxford ‘the Little Easy.'”
Clark said he’s excited for his New Orleans friends to experience the Grove, the legendary Ole Miss tailgating area, where fans dress up and show Southern hospitality to visitors.
“It’s all over the top,” he said. “The tents have really big screen TVs and some even have champagne fountains. People will say, ‘Come in and grab some food and drink.'”
Former Tulane Green Wave wide receiver Brian King and his family pose for a photo at a 2024 Tulane game. Left to right: Chabrina King, Isabella King, Brian King and Isaiah King.
Another New Orleans-area Tulane fan with connections to the Oxford area doesn’t have the same dual allegiance.
Brian King, a Slidell resident and banker, spent four years as a Green Wave wide receiver, starting with the year Hurricane Katrina disrupted the school’s season.
“Tulane football is in my blood,” he said.
He’s turning this weekend’s game into a family visit, bringing his kids to his grandmother’s house in a Memphis suburb while he and his wife attend the game an hour or so away.
“My wife is really the reason we’re going,” he said. “She knows all the fans come decked out in makeup, boots and dresses, and she’s big into fashion, so she didn’t want to miss this.”
Memphis will be ‘Tulane north’
While most fans will drive directly to Oxford for the game, Tulane’s 120 players and the hundreds of people that travel with them will fly to Memphis Friday and then back to New Orleans Saturday night. Buses will deliver them to and from Oxford on game day.
Tulane University President Michael Fitts is also bound for Memphis, where he and his staff will be hosting a party on Friday night before a tailgating event on Saturday in the Grove.
Tulane University President Michael A. Fitts celebrates after the Green Wave football team’s conference championship victory on Dec. 5, 2025 in New Orleans. (Photo: Kenny Lass)
“Oxford’s a little small to put up the entire Tulane gang,” Fitts said. “And we sold out all of our events.”
There’s one factor that’s capping the size of the Tulane contingent heading north: a very limited number of tickets.
Even though Vaught–Hemingway Stadium on the Ole Miss holds more than 60,000 people, Tulane is the visiting team, so was only allotted about 3,500 tickets to sell to fans.
“This is not a bowl game,” Fitts said. “We are the away team, so our tickets were sold out almost instantaneously, and then a lot of alums went onto StubHub to buy.”
For that reason, and because Tulane has alumni spread across the globe, many fans aren’t flying in for the game, but they’ll be watching at dozens of official viewing parties as far away as New York City and London.
In New Orleans, one such event will take place at the Abita brewery on Tchoupitoulas Street. Donald Moore, a Tulane law grad and Green Wave super fan who lives in Pass Christian, said he’ll be there because he’s attended one too many games in Oxford that didn’t turn out the way he hoped.
He can’t stomach the thought of the drive home with his daughter and son-in-law, both Ole Miss grads, if things don’t work out this time.
Tracy Moore, Frank Torres, Jewelynn Nice and Donald Moore celebrate on the Yulman Stadium field after Tulane football’s Dec. 5 conference championship victory.
So, on Friday, he plans to wear to work his “Tulane vs. No Lane” T-shirt, which references Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin’s late-season defection to LSU. And then on Saturday he’ll drive to New Orleans to watch the game with “like-minded” people.
“I’m hoping if I stay away, I’ll bring us better luck,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correctly describe the travel plans of Brian King and his family.
