2014 Bahamas Bowl results: Western Kentucky survives Central Michigan, hail mary

I am in a stadium built by the Chinese government in the Bahamas, watching an American football game.

Central Michigan is lateraling to almost complete the biggest comeback in bowl history.

Let’s look at the key numbers from Wednesday’s bowl action.

Including Wednesday night’s 30-6 beatdown at the hands of Rice, Fresno State’s last two trips to the Hawaii Bowl have finished with losses by a combined score of 73-16.

Western Kentucky survived a 34-point comeback from Central Michigan that ended with the craziest Hail Mary you’ll ever see to win the best (and first) ever Popeyes Bahamas Bowl on Wednesday. So the Hilltoppers did what any of us would dream of doing — they ate Popeyes while claiming the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl trophy.

Popeyes has such a sports internet cult following that we had an entire post earlier today all about a new Popeyes secret flavor that was unveiled at the bowl game. WKU is living the dream.

Central Michigan headed into the fourth quarter of the inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl trailing by five touchdowns.

Challenge accepted.

The inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl started with promise, got pretty one-sided in a hurry, but ended in true MAC/Conference USA fashion with a flurry of points before Western Kentucky’s Jeff Brohm would win his first-ever bowl game as a head coach, 49-48. Central Michigan went for the win on a two-point conversion after completing a ridiculous hook-and-lateral Hail Mary sequence, but a back corner fade on the try proved unsuccessful.

Both teams’ starting quarterbacks finished the game with five or more touchdown passes. WKU’s senior signal caller Brandon Doughty finished the afternoon 31 of 42 for 486 yards and the aforementioned five TDs, while his counterpart for the Chippewas, sophomore Cooper Rush, completed 28 of his 45 passes for 493 yards, seven TDs and an interception.

Popeyes Bahamas Bowl might have featured the wildest ending we’ll see all bowl season, but even more important was this extremely big news that shook the entire “foodie” scene to the core:

What could this secret mystery item be? SB Nation’s Rodger Sherman got to the bottom of it:

The inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl was not made up!

This is, without question, a regulation college football game taking place that is both viewable on ESPN and in the Bahamas.

All we want for Christmas Eve are points. Can Wednesday’s non-mainland bowl games provide them? Here are a couple of keys for Wednesday’s action.

What can CMU do that others couldn’t?

The Bahamas Bowl is a new addition to the college football postseason slate, pitting a Conference USA team against a MAC foe. Western Kentucky will square off versus Central Michigan early Wednesday afternoon, as two building programs look for a signature postseason victory.

Central Michigan’s players were very excited to find out they’d be traveling to the Bahamas, and now they have an opportunity to take down a talented Hilltoppers squad. The Chippewas went 7-5 this season, finishing fourth in the MAC West, and recorded multiple-possession victories against Purdue, Ohio and Northern Illinois. Central Michigan has secured a winning season no matter the result, and this will be the second such year out of the last three seasons under head coach Dan Enos.

The BYU Cougars and Memphis Tigers meet in the Miami Beach Bowl at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 22. Allowing only 17.1 points per game on defense this season, Memphis finished the year ranked fifth behind only Ole Miss, Stanford, LSU and Alabama in scoring defense.

BYU is 4-1 straight up and against the spread in its last five bowl games, while Memphis will be making its first bowl appearance since 2008. The Tigers are a 2-point favorite.

Central Michigan is going to the Bahamas Bowl to play Western Kentucky this year. That’s exciting in itself for the Chippewas, since the players now get a free trip to the Bahamas. But the coaching staff decided to make it even more exciting for their team by announcing the bowl bid with a fun video, which also shows players rooting for the Bahamas over all other options.

After watching the video, we thought two things:

Central Michigan University is from ... well ... central Michigan. They’ve probably been to Detroit before. So the Bahamas is the MUCH more exciting option. For them, anyway.

There are a handful of new bowl games this year, but none are as exciting or interesting as the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl.

Set aside the fact that the game will call for a Conference USA and MAC team to meet up -- lots of points! -- but the game is being played in the Bahamas on Christmas Eve. There’s already the Hawaii Bowl, and the best part of that game is usually all of the scenery they show around the island during timeouts. The Bahamas is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and with it being a new destination for college football fans to travel to this winter, there should be a solid crowd turnout. Who doesn’t love a little football with their milk and cookies?