2016 Boca Raton Bowl, WKU vs. Memphis: Date, time, location, and everything to know

Also, head over here for the fully updated bowl season calendar as it fills in, from the New Orleans Bowl through the Rose Bowl. We’ll also add picks, scores, and more to that calendar over time.

There’s a college football bowl game in Boca Raton, Fla. This’ll be the third year of the Boca Raton Bowl, the postseason contest most accessible to legions of folks who have retired to Florida and now reside in Boca and its surrounding areas.

The game started in 2014, when Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato led the Thundering Herd to a romp against Northern Illinois. (That was the capper to a brilliant college career for Cato, one of the country’s scarier dual-threat signal-callers.) Last year, Toledo beat Temple relatively handedly, setting up this year’s third edition of the game.

The game matches up teams from somewhere in the MAC, Conference USA the American. They play at Florida Atlantic’s FAU Stadium, which opened a few years ago and seems to fit this bowl pretty well. Attendance figures in the first two years have come in at capacity and just below it. The Boca Raton Bowl isn’t the Rose Bowl, but there’s no reason it can’t be fun.

Here’s everything you’ve got to know about this year’s game:

Date and time: Dec. 20, 7 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Boca Raton, Fla.

Stadium: FAU Stadium

Last year’s score: Toledo 32, Temple 17

Last year’s attendance: 25,908

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Temple, Toledo, Marshall, NIU: 1

Western Kentucky (10-3, 7-1 in Conference USA)

Western Kentucky had an impressive season in 2016, wrapping with another Conference USA title, won over Louisiana Tech.

The 9-3 regular season record also looks a lot better when you consider who those losses were to. First came against Alabama during Week 2, then the Hilltoppers beat Miami of Ohio before losing to Vanderbilt, 31-30, in overtime. WKU lost to Louisiana Tech, 55-52, on Oct. 6, but won its next straight games to make it to the Conference USA Championship against Louisiana Tech.

Hilltoppers quarterback Mike White leads the WKU offense and should finish with over 4,000 yards passing with a good bowl game. Running back Anthony Wales has played well, clearing 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. WKU’s offense is a top-10 national unit.

In general, things are going quite well under head coach Jeff Brohm. Brohm was able to win back-to-back bowl games during his first two years as WKU’s head coach, so he’ll be looking to go for three straight this season.

Memphis (8-4, 5-3 in American Athletic)

Memphis was expected to be picking up the pieces this season, following Justin Fuente’s departure to Virginia Tech. However, first-year head coach Mike Norvell has exceeded expectations with an 8-4 season. In fact, Norvell is the first Tigers head coach in program history to lead Memphis to bowl eligibility in his first season.

The Tigers were off to a 5-1 start by the midpoint of the season, with the one loss coming at the hands of Ole Miss. But Memphis then dropped four out it’s next five games, including losses to Navy, Tulsa and USF, which dropped them out of the AAC title discussion.

The offense is led by quarterback Riley Ferguson, who went over 3,000 yards this season. Norvell’s done a nice job transitioning into the job and times seem pretty good for the Tigers. We’ll see where they go from here.