Looking for live American sports to bet on this Christmas Eve? The only option is the Hawaii Bowl.
Arguably the worst sports day of the 2019 calendar year was Wednesday, July 10. The only major sports league going at that point of the year is Major League Baseball and there was no game that Wednesday because it was the day after the All-Star Game. The second-slowest day of the year is on Christmas Eve. No NFL, NBA, NHL or college basketball this year, but there is one bowl game: the Hawaii Bowl. The host school faces BYU with a kickoff of 8 p.m. ET from Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. The Cougars are 1.5-point favorites on the college football odds.
As one might expect, Hawaii has played in this game more than any other school as this will be the Rainbow Warriors' ninth appearance in the 18-year history of the bowl. They are 4-4 in it after losing 31-14 to Louisiana Tech a season ago. This year, UH (9-5) was the West Division champion of the Mountain West Conference but routed at Boise State 31-10 in the conference title game. Hawaii is usually a high-scoring team behind senior QB Cole McDonald, averaging 33.6 points per game, but it's a bad defensive club in allowing 31.7 ppg. UH is 7-23 SU in its last 30 games as a home underdog.
BYU (7-5) is an independent that was hard to get a read on this year. The Cougars won at Tennessee and upset both No. 24 Southern Cal and No. 14 Boise State but also lost to the likes of Toledo and South Florida. The Cougars did close winning five of their final six games. BYU has managed to win its past eight bowl games as a favorite and routed Western Michigan 49-18 in last year's Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. However, the Cougars are 0-6 this year ATS as betting favorites on college football picks.
Hawaii and BYU were both once members of the WAC and thus have played 31 times, with BYU winning 23 of them. They have