The second week of bowl games is light on marquee names. There will be no Power Five conference represented this week. However, there's still some intrigue this week that dedicated football fans will love.
Some teams will be playing their first bowl game in some time this week. Wyoming is in its first bowl game since 2011. Idaho is in its first bowl game since 2009, and could be playing in its last-ever bowl game. Eastern Michigan, a traditional doormat in the MAC, gutted out a seven-win season and will play in the Bahamas Bowl for its first bowl game since 1987. Its opponent: Old Dominion, which has been at the FBS level since only 2014 and will mark this game as its first-ever bowl game.
The teams are novel this week and the venues are rather exotic, including the Bahamas and the traditional Christmas Eve Hawai'i Bowl.
Here's your viewing guide for this week.
Monday
Central Michigan vs. Tulsa [Miami Beach Bowl] (ESPN, 2:30 p.m.). Central Michigan travels to Marlins Park to play the Golden Hurricane in the third Miami Beach Bowl. Astute college football fans may remember this bowl game best for the inaugural version in 2014. A few Brigham Young players, upset about losing to Memphis, decided to incur a few honor code violations with a post-game brawl.
Ohio State fans should remember both teams from earlier this season. Ohio State hosted Tulsa the week before traveling to Norman to complete its Oklahoma sweep. Tulsa hung tough with the Buckeyes in a rain-soaked contest until some disastrous turnovers gave Ohio State a comfortable margin en route to victory.
Central Michigan upset Oklahoma State in Stillwater early in the season on a hook-and-ladder "Hail Mary" that should not have counted. Remember that Oklahoma State's student newspaper kindly asked Central Michigan to forfeit the victory.
Tulsa is a two-touchdown favorite this game, as it should be. The Golden Hurricane had a fantastic year, finishing 9-3 with just losses to Houston, Navy, and Ohio State. Central Michigan, meanwhile, would be 5-7 if referees did not screw up Oklahoma State's intentional grounding penalty to end the game.
This will be the rubber match between both programs. Both scheduled a home-and-home in 1986 and 1987. Central Michigan won in Mount Pleasant, 41-18. Tulsa repaid them the favor in Tulsa the next year, winning 42-6.
Tuesday
Western Kentucky's coach now calls West Lafayette home. He should prepare to be disappointed. (Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)
Memphis vs. Western Kentucky [Boca Raton Bowl] (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Jay Norvell, former Arizona State offensive coordinator, had an 8-4 debut as Memphis' head coach. He punctuated it with a thrilling 48-44 win over Houston. He'll get the two-time Conference-USA champion Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in his first bowl game.
Western Kentucky has arguably the best passing offense in the country. Only the teams that rely more on "Air raid" passing concepts (e.g. California, Texas Tech, Washington State) put up more yards passing per game. It's one reason why the Hilltoppers are favored by five.
Western Kentucky will be without former head coach Jeff Brohm. He took the Purdue job, astonishing fans everywhere that Purdue actually spent money and made a competent hire. Mike Sanford, former Notre Dame offensive coordinator, will take over next year.
Wednesday
Brigham Young vs. Wyoming [Poinsettia Bowl] (ESPN, 9 p.m.). BYU started the year 1-3. That schedule was rough to start. It beat Arizona in the season-opener but dropped subsequent games at Utah (by a failed two-point conversion), home against UCLA (by three points) and against West Virginia in Landover, Maryland (by three points). A bowl game seemed like only a remote possibility for first-year head coach Kalani Sitake.
8-4 is a solid debut for Kalani Sitake. (Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports)
The Cougars rallied, though. Its next three games were wins against Toledo, at Michigan State, and against Mississippi State. Only the one-point Boise State loss served as a blemish as the Cougars finished 8-4 after starting 1-3. It will play in the Poinsettia Bowl, BYU's designated bowl game as an independent.
Wyoming, former Mountain West foe, will play BYU for the first time since 2010. Wyoming is an unlikely bowl team. It's the first bowl game since the New Mexico Bowl in 2011. Wyoming had meager success on the gridiron before an unlikely division championship this year, largely on the merits of its upset win over Boise State. Its eight wins this year are a milestone for the program. It's only the second eight-win season since 1993.
The Cowboys struggled down the stretch. After beating eventual conference champion San Diego State Aztecs in a wild one, the Cowboys lost by 21 at New Mexico and dropped the rematch in Laramie by a field goal.
Wyoming is a five-point underdog on Wednesday.
Thursday
Idaho vs. Colorado State [Potato Bowl] (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Idaho is another unlikely bowl game participant. The 8-4 Vandals are playing in only their third bowl game ever. Incidentally, all three were in Boise in, previously, the Humanitarian Bowl and, now, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
Winner of this game gets a lot of potatoes. (Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports.)
Fans may want to note this could be the last bowl game in Idaho's history, depending on how next season unfolds. The demise of the Western Athletic Conference created, for lack of better term, "orphans" like Idaho and New Mexico State. Neither program was desirable for the Mountain West. No other conference in or near its region (i.e. the Pac-12 or Big XII) would acquire them if the Mountain West would not.
The Sun Belt acquired Idaho after a year as an independent. However, the conference announced it would renew membership for Idaho or New Mexico State after 2017. Idaho will return to the Big Sky in the FCS subdivision after next year, ending a 22-year stint as an Division 1-A/FBS program.
Idaho is undefeated in all its bowl games (again, all played in Boise), though it will play on Boise's blue turf as a two-touchdown underdog.
Friday
Eastern Michigan should be happy to go bowling, but it'll be outmatched in the Bahamas. (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
Eastern Michigan vs. Old Dominion [Bahamas Bowl] (ESPN, 1 p.m.). Here's arguably the least likely bowl game on the entire schedule. Eastern Michigan, arguably the worst all-time program in MAC history, will play in only its second-ever bowl game (last was the 1987 California Bowl) against Old Dominion, which has been playing football only since 2009 (and 2014 at the FBS level).
To cap this off, the bowl game will be in the Bahamas. That's not a bad spot for a first bowl game in a lifetime.
Old Dominion is a four-point favorite. It's surprising that it's not favored by even more. The Monarchs are 9-3 and co-champions of the C-USA East Division (in other words, the division with Western Kentucky in it). Its three losses were routs (at Appalachian State by 24, at NC State by 27, at Western Kentucky by 35), but its résumé looks far better than what Eastern Michigan did this year.
Look for David Washington to have a big game for the Monarchs. The senior quarterback has a 28/4 TD/INT ratio. Eastern Michigan, meanwhile, has the country's No. 113 passing defense.
Louisiana Tech vs. Navy [Armed Forces Bowl] (ESPN, 4:30 p.m.). Friday's second game will feature Navy and Louisiana Tech in Fort Worth.
Navy is an unusual spot entering this game. It had an outside shot at the Cotton Bowl, but Temple smashed it in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game. Navy followed that with the first loss to Army in 15 years.
Put in other words, it's the first time in the history of Navy football that the Midshipmen will play a bowl game while riding a two-game losing streak.
Louisiana Tech is riding a similar two-game losing streak after dropping its regular-season finale at Southern Miss and losing a rematch with Western Kentucky in the Conference USA Championship Game. It will be a five-point favorite in Fort Worth, though.
Ohio vs. Troy [Dollar General Bowl] (ESPN, 8 p.m.). Ohio travels to Mobile, Alabama to play Troy (from a two-and-a-half-hour drive away) in the "Dollar General Bowl." This has to take the trophy for most laughable bowl game this season, and probably ever. Though founded in Kentucky and headquartered in Tennessee, playing a bowl game sponsored by Dollar General in Alabama seems appropriate.
Fans last saw Ohio take Western Michigan to the wire, threatening to spoil the Broncos' perfect season and path to the Cotton Bowl. However, a game-ending interception denied Ohio the win and its first conference championship since 1968. It'll travel to the South again to play Troy, which it last did in the 2010 New Orleans Bowl.
Troy won that game by 27 points and is favored by four in Mobile.
Saturday
Ikaika Woolsey (No. 11) will need to engineer some scoring drives to keep Hawai'i afloat at home. (Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports)
Hawai'i vs. Middle Tennessee [Hawai'i Bowl] (ESPN, 8 p.m.). College football's Christmas Eve tradition continues as the Hawai'i Bowl pits the home team against the visiting Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee.
Hawai'i is 6-7, but because there were not enough bowl-eligible teams to fill out the schedule, the Rainbow Warriors got a waiver to play in this game. That it's a home game will help the Warriors defray important costs associated with operating its program.
Middle Tennessee is a points machine and and the No. 9 total offense in the country. It will likely do bad things to Hawai'i's defense, which ranks No. 115 in points allowed.
All the same, watch this game knowing Christmas comes the next day. It's what makes this bowl game unique and worth watching even if the caliber of teams is not as good.
