2016 Miami Beach Bowl, Tulsa vs. Central Michigan: Date, time, location and everything to know

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The Miami Beach Bowl returns to college football’s postseason landscape for a third year in 2016. The game started in 2014 and has now gone through two offense-packed years, and it’s back with an American-MAC tie-in match for this year.

The game is played in a baseball stadium, Marlins Park, which has all kinds of amenities but mostly sits quietly during the actual MLB season. Whatever your thoughts about the proliferation of college bowl games, it’s kind of fun to see games in weirdly configured venues, and this definitely offers that.

Also fun: scoring! This game’s had a lot of it in two years. Western Kentucky and South Florida posted a combined 80 last year, and Memphis and BYU dropped a cool 103 the year before that. If you’re going to play a bowl game in a baseball stadium in Florida, you might as well let it be conducive to lots of yards and lots of points, and the Miami Beach Bowl has certainly met the mark over its first couple tries.

Here’s everything to know about this year’s version of the game:

Date and time: Dec. 19, 2:30 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Miami

Stadium: Marlins Park

Last year’s score: Western Kentucky 45, South Florida 35

Last year’s attendance: 21,712

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Western Kentucky, South Florida, Memphis and BYU have each appeared once.

Central Michigan (6-6, 3-5 in MAC)

Central Michigan got a pretty huge win over No. 22 Oklahoma State in week 2, except the game-winning Hail Mary never should have counted, as the referees admitted after the game. Still, the win technically still counts, and it allowed the Chippewas to get off to a 3-0 start this year. However, they then lost to Virginia and Western Michigan before getting two wins over Ball State and Northern Illinois. Central Michigan completed the backend of its season by losing the last four out of five games, bringing them to 6-6 on the season.

The Chippewas are led offensively by quarterback Cooper Rush, who has thrown for more than 3,000 yards, along with 23 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Wide receiver Corey Williams finished with more than 1,000 yards receiving as well.

Third-year head coach John Bonamego has done pretty well for himself so far, leading the Chippewas to a bowl in 2015 and again this season. He’s still searching for his first bowl victory however, so maybe 2016 will be his year.

Tulsa (9-3, 6-2 in American Athletic)

The Golden Hurricane began the 2016 season looking like AAC title contenders, going undefeated in conference play and having just one loss to Ohio State during Week 2. However close losses to Houston and Navy -- games decided by a combined nine points -- took them out of the division race by Week 12.

The Golden Hurricane’s offense has been impressive all season in terms of scoring points. The unit ranks inside the top 15 in the country in points per game. Tulsa quarterback Dane Evans has thrown for over 2,700 yards, along with 24 touchdowns.

Last year, Tulsa lost a close 55-52 game against Virginia Tech in the Camping World Independence Bowl, so second-year head coach Philip Montgomery is still searching for the first bowl win of his Tulsa career.