| Game Name: | Hawaii Bowl |
| Subheader: | 15th Hawaii Bowl |
| Date Game Played: | December 24 |
| Year Game Played: | 2016 |
| Football Season: | 2016 |
| Stadium: | Aloha Stadium |
| City: | Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Visitor School: | University of Hawaii |
| Visitor Name Short: | Hawaii |
| Visitor Nickname: | Warriors |
| Visitor Record: | 6-7 |
| Visitor Conference: | Mountain West |
| Visitor Coach: | Nick Rolovich |
| Visitor 1Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 21 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 10 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 7 |
| Home School: | Middle Tennessee State University |
| Home Name Short: | Middle Tennessee |
| Home Nickname: | Blue Raiders |
| Home Record: | 8-4 |
| Home Conference: | C-USA |
| Home Coach: | Rick Stockstill |
| Home 1Q: | 14 |
| Home 2Q: | 7 |
| Home 3Q: | 7 |
| Home 4Q: | 7 |
| Odds: | No Line[1] |
| Mvp: | Dru Brown (QB, Hawaii) & Richie James (WR, Middle Tennessee) |
| Referee: | Charles Lamertina (AAC) |
| Attendance: | 20,327 |
| Payout: | 650,000[2] |
| Us Network: | ESPN/ESPN Radio |
| Us Announcers: | Chris Cotter, Mark May, Maria Taylor (TV) Kevin Winter, Mike Golic Jr (Radio) |
The 2016 Hawaii Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 24, 2016, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The fifteenth edition of the Hawaii Bowl featured the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors from the Mountain West Conference against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders from Conference USA. It began at 3:15 p.m. HST and aired on ESPN. It was one of the 2016–17 bowl games that concluded the 2016 FBS football season.
The game featured the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors with a record of 6–7 against the Middle Tennessee. This was the second time that the Hawaii Bowl featured a team with a losing record, after Fresno State in the 2014 Hawaii Bowl.
This was the second meeting between the schools; the first meeting was on September 5, 1993, where the Rainbow Warriors defeated the Blue Raiders by a score of 35–14.[3]
See also: 2016 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team and 2016 Mountain West Conference football season. Hawaii, playing in their first bowl game since 2010, was the first Hawaii team to enter a bowl game with a losing record. The Rainbow Warriors, led by head coach Nick Rolovich, won the most league games since joining the MW in 2012, and had the most wins in a season since 2011. The Bows had lost three straight bowl games, including the 2008 BCS Sugar Bowl against Georgia, and had not won since a 41–24 Hawaii Bowl win over Arizona State in 2006, 10 years earlier.
See main article: 2016 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team and 2016 Conference USA football season. Coached by Rick Stockstill, the Blue Raiders were bowl eligible for the sixth time since Stockstill took over in 2006, but MTSU hasn't won a bowl game since 2009, losing four straight bowl games in that span. The Blue Raiders also boasted the 12th best passing offense in the country, scoring 40.5 points a game.
Hawaii won their first bowl game since the 2006 Hawaii Bowl, exactly 10 years prior.
| Statistics | MTSU | HAW |
|---|---|---|
| First Downs | 29 | 18 |
| Third down efficiency | 4-11 | 8-15 |
| Rushes-yards | 24-123 (5.1) | 42-206 (4.9) |
| Passing yards | 420 | 296 |
| Passing, Comp-Att-Int | 29-50-2 | 20-30-0 |
| Time of Possession | 23:26 | 36:34 |