2016 Miami Beach Bowl: How to watch Central Michigan vs. Tulsa on TV, streaming

After making it through a packed Saturday that saw only one of the two teams playing a bowl game at home suffering a crushing defeat, bowl season resumes on Monday — dodging the NFL’s Sunday schedule for the first of three times this bowl season, in case you thought that bowl scheduling was about something more than chasing TV ratings — with one of the bowls that is an unequivocal prize for both participants.

Miami Beach Bowl

What: The Miami Beach Bowl has been played annually since 2014 at Marlins Park in Miami. It has tie-ins with the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference, meaning that the only Group of Five conference without a Miami Beach Bowl tie-in is the Mountain West.
Who: The 2016 Miami Beach Bowl pits the MAC’s Central Michigan, a 6-6 team with a win over Oklahoma State and losses to both other directional Michigan schools, against the AAC’s Tulsa, a 9-3 outfit with an unnervingly balanced offense.
Where: Marlins Park, in the heart of Miami, and not Miami Beach, which is about a 20-minute drive from Marlins Park. (cf. “Tampa is not South Florida.”)
When: 2:30 p.m., December 19. Why 2:30 p.m.? Who knows?
Why and how: The AAC announced the establishment of the Miami Beach Bowl in late 2013, crowing that it would “bring postseason college football back to Miami,” which had technically not hosted an annual game since the Orange Bowl moved from the now-demolished Orange Bowl — which was located on the same site Marlins Park now occupies — to the Dolphins’ stadium of a thousand names in what would later be incorporated as Miami Gardens. The AAC owns and operates the Miami Beach Bowl, and said in that 2013 release that “Television and title sponsorship agreements will be announced at a later date.” To date, the Miami Beach Bowl has not had a title sponsor.
What do the players get? Under Armour backpack, hat and sunglasses, ISlide sandals, portable power bank, beach paddle-ball set, football.
How much is that worth? Maybe $400, if the Under Armour stuff is particularly nice? ISlide’s sandals are $50 and up, but a power bank can’t be that expensive, and the beach paddle-ball set and football are probably cheap. Also: A football? Really?
Should I watch? If you are not doing anything else this Monday afternoon, perhaps? Tulsa’s offense is derived from the Baylor Bear Raid thanks to former Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery coaching the Golden Hurricane, and Central Michigan’s quarterback is named Cooper Rush, who likely narrowly avoided a lifetime on Disney Channel programming, given that name. No team has scored fewer than 35 points in a Miami Beach Bowl as of yet, and these two allowed 28.7 (Central Michigan) and 31.5 (Tulsa) points per game in the regular season.