Tulane and Mississippi, teams that share a long history, will square off for the second time this season when they meet Dec. 20 in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
The winner in Oxford, Mississippi, will be matched against No. 3 seed Georgia in the Jan. 1 quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
The Rebels beat Tulane 45-10 in Oxford on Sept. 20 and have won 14 in a row in the series since last losing to the Green Wave in 1988. It will be the 75th meeting of the teams since 1893. Mississippi leads the series 45-29.
Both teams are in the playoff for the first time. Mississippi (11-1) received an at-large bid and is the No. 6 seed. Tulane (11-2) earned a bid for winning the American Conference championship and is seeded 11th.
Pete Golding will be coaching his first game for Mississippi since replacing Lane Kiffin, who left for LSU last Sunday. Golding said he sees good and bad in playing a rematch. He and his staff know the makeup and tendencies of the opponent, and they also know the Green Wave are hot.
“That feels like years ago at this point," Golding said of the first game. "It was early in the season and they've played really well lately, and they're coming off a really good game and got some confidence from winning the conference championship. We know we'll have our work cut out for us.”
Tulane's Jon Sumrall, whose hiring at Florida was also announced last week, will coach the Green Wave in the CFP. Sumrall was Mississippi's linebackers coach in 2018.
“We’re playing with house money a little bit, right?” Sumrall said on ESPN. “For us, you only get one shot at this. Have no regrets, let it all hang out and enjoy the opportunity. Take it all in, give it everything you've got. Play together, play as a team, have fun going through this experience. There's nothing we're going to do other than give our best effort to this opportunity and I look forward to watching our guys compete.”
Georgia (12-1) received a first-round bye for the second straight year. Last year, the Bulldogs were No. 2 and played Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, losing 23-10 to the eventual national runner-up Fighting Irish. The game marked Gunner Stockton’s first career start.
Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said he wouldn't use the 30 days between the SEC championship game and Sugar Bowl as an excuse for falling flat against Notre Dame.
“I think that’s what the general public and the people on the outside world want to say, that the layoff had to do with it,” Smart said. “I think it had something to do with a good football team we played against.”
The 2025 Bulldogs locked up their first-round bye with a 28-7 win over Alabama in the SEC championship game Saturday. Georgia will be making its 13th Sugar Bowl appearance, tied for the second most all-time.
Smart said he'll follow the same plan as last year to prepare for whichever team the Bulldogs face.
“We’ll treat those teams as equals,” he said. “We’ll have coaches assigned to them. Coordinators will look at both. But we’ll split our staff in half, look hard at both teams, dive into their seasons.”
Mississippi's only loss this season was to Georgia, 43-35 on the road Oct. 18. The Rebels finished with five straight wins as speculation swirled about whether Kiffin would leave for another job.
In the Rebels' win over Tulane in September, Trinidad Chambliss threw for two touchdowns, Kewan Lacy added a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs. The game was Chambliss' second career start. The transfer from Division II Ferris State was 17-of-27 passing for 307 yards while adding 112 yards on 14 rushes.
Tulane managed only 282 yards of total offense and turned the ball over on downs three times in the second half. Jake Retzlaff, after an 0-for-9 start, finished 5 of 17 for 56 yards. Tulane went on to win eight of its next nine games, including the 34-21 victory over North Texas for the American title.
AP Sports Writer Charles Odum contributed from Atlanta.
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Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (6) passes the football during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Mississippi State, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Starkville, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press.
The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of “Catahoula Crunch,” prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they've been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.
“Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. Earlier bulletins noted “a combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol” as well as "additional locations where agents can find immigrants.”
Immigration authorities have insisted the sweeps are targeted at “criminal illegal aliens.” But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation.
Local leaders told the AP those numbers — which law enforcement officials were admonished not to distribute to the media — undermined the stated aim of the roundup. They also expressed concern that the online surveillance could chill free speech as authorities threaten to charge anyone interfering with immigration enforcement.
“It confirms what we already knew — this was not about public safety, it’s about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities,” said state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. “It’s furthering a sick narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to a prior news release touting “dozens of arrests.” The agency has not released an accounting of the detainees taken into custody or their criminal histories.
DHS has publicly detailed only six arrests stemming from the operation — all people with criminal histories — including a man they vaguely said was convicted of “homicide” and another convicted of sexual assault. The agency, which has several hundred agents on the ground in southeast Louisiana, has said it aims to make at least 5,000 arrests in the region over an operation expected to last up to two months.
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
DHS and Republican leaders have framed the crackdown as targeting the most violent offenders. But the records reviewed by the AP identify only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first days as having criminal histories that rose beyond traffic violations — information the intelligence bulletins warn “should not be distributed to the media.”
New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said the stated goals of the operation to arrest violent offenders did not align with the reality of what is taking place.
“There’s literally no information being given to the city of New Orleans whatsoever,” Morrell said. “If the goal was for them to come here and augment existing law enforcement, to pursue violent criminals or people with extensive criminal histories, why wouldn’t you be more transparent about who you’ve arrested and why?”
Morrell and other officials have said the crackdown appears to be a dragnet focused on people with brown skin, citing viral videos of encounters such as masked agents chasing a 23-year-old U.S. citizen returning home from the grocery store.
Law enforcement officials have been carefully tracking such footage and public reaction. “For some supporters, the videos with sounds of children crying in the background as their parents are placed under arrest, is weighing heavy on their hearts,” one briefing stated.
The records also shed new light on cooperation among state and federal authorities in an operation welcomed by Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. Both the FBI and Customs and Border Protection have stationed agents at the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange, an intelligence and data sharing center that is closely following discussions on the online forum Reddit that local residents have used to exchange information about the immigration raids.
One briefing noted that some “have gone so far as to accuse agents of racially profiling Hispanic areas specifically.” Another flagged social media posts suggesting agents “are not keeping with the mission of targeting criminal immigrants only.” And a third pointed out that critics of the raids “bring up past hurricanes and the work done by immigrants” in their aftermath.
“The chatter is slower during the night, mainly just commenting on posts from earlier in the day,” one of the briefings states. “Once daylight arrives and agencies are back out, the chatter and new posts will pick back up.”
The briefings have identified no threats to law enforcement, but the fusion center has sought to debunk what it called false reports that a pedestrian was fatally struck by law enforcement. “It has been confirmed that this actually did not occur,” the center told law enforcement on Saturday.
One briefing described an incident involving “suspicious persons/protesters” who showed up early Saturday at an ICE facility in St. Charles Parish, where records show the detainees were expected to be processed.
Some local officials said they had been unaware of the state's role in the online monitoring. Louisiana State Police pledged “operational support” to immigration authorities and warned the public that troopers will arrest anyone who assaults a federal agent or causes criminal damage to property.
“The Louisiana State Police remains vigilant in monitoring social media activity related to protests, activism and other forms of public response,” Trooper Danny Berrincha, a state police spokesperson, wrote in an email to the AP. “Through the LSP Fusion Center, we actively track developments and facilitate the sharing of information and communication among our partner agencies.”
The fusion center also has tracked the tools used by protesters to foil federal immigration enforcement, highlighting social media links to whistle handouts, trainings on filming federal agents and the emergence of a hotline for reporting arrests. The surveillance extended to activist discussions about immigration authorities’ presence near an elementary school and recapped demonstrations inside the New Orleans City Council chambers and elsewhere.
“They can monitor me all they want,” said Rachel Taber, an organizer with the New Orleans-based grassroots advocacy group Union Migrante, which shares crowdsourced reports and videos of the federal immigration enforcement operations. “We are not doing anything illegal."
Beth Davis, a spokesperson for Indivisible NOLA, which has organized some of the trainings described in the law enforcement briefings, said it was sad authorities seemed preoccupied with law-abiding citizens. “That they feel threatened by a bunch of community organizers that have nothing other than phones and whistles blows my mind.”
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Mustian reported from New York.
FILE - U.S. Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino, center, walks on the street in New Orleans, La., Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - U.S. Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino talks to the media in Kenner, La., Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Customs and Border Patrol agents question occupants of a vehicle they pulled over, during an immigration crackdown in Kenner, La., Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Wilma Fuentes yells at Customs and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and some of his agents as they walk through a neighborhood during an immigration crackdown, in Kenner, La., Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
