Tulane, Louisiana Start Fight Over ‘Cheapest Beer in College Football’

Nothing screams like cheap beer and petty tweets.

In promoting their season ticket package for the upcoming college football season, the Tulane Green Wave posted a photo on social media Thursday claiming that they sell the cheapest beer in college football. While the post got its expected share of incendiary responses, one quote tweet stood out above the rest—a reply from their Week Four opponent, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, which claims that their school actually sells the cheapest beer in college football.

Of course, alums above a certain age might be stunned that either school is promoting alcohol sales during games at all. For decades, the NCAA had strict rules about serving alcohol in football stadiums as most students on campus were under the legal age for consumption. However, those rules had been relaxed over time, with a recent Associated Press study revealing that 55 of the 69 Power Five schools (80%) serve alcohol in the public sections of athletic venues.

(One of those Power Five schools, Pittsburgh, tried to one-up both Tulane and Louisiana, while BYU cleverly went the chocolate milk route, instead.)

Alcohol sales are another revenue generator for these programs. An ESPN report in November 2023 noted that the University of North Carolina had been selling alcohol for its sporting events since the 2019-20 season, amassing $4 million in sales.

Yet the ultimate signal of how times have changed will be seen from Tucson, where the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop will take place in late December. Organizers bill the event as having “the first alcohol partner as the presenting sponsor in a NCAA bowl game,” though the Bacardi Bowl took place in Havana, Cuba, off and on between 1907 and 1946.

Tulane and Louisiana played one another almost annually throughout the 1980s and 1990s but have been infrequent opponents through the 21st century. They last faced each other in 2018 at the AutoNation Cure Bowl where the Green Wave beat the Ragin’ Cajuns, 41-24. Long after that game, it seems the two schools have entered a new playing field, battling over who provides the cheapest libation in the nation.