Is Tulane good? I don't know. We're fairly confident that Houston isn't any good, and yet they put up a better fight vs OU than Tulane. Is OU all that good? I think we're about to find out this week vs Tennessee, but we really don't know yet.
Trying to do comparative analysis this early in the season is usually impossible. Just not enough data. And sometimes what we think we know turns out to be completely wrong. Oklahoma State was completely throttled by South Alabama in game 3 of last season. Obviously they were a trash team in disarray who did not then proceed to go 7-2 in the B12 and play in the CCG.