||Sleepshirt|Ring|Necklace|Earrings|Book|

Glasses||

Hey y’all! I hope everyone had a GREAT weekend. Unfortunately, my weekend wasn’t so great. Instead of getting to drive to Waco with my good friend, Rachel, to talk with the Baylor football team, I was stuck at home, sick in my bed.  A huge wrench got thrown in my plans, but that didn’t stop me from watching football all weekend! I just snuggled up on my bed, threw my glasses on, and watched week 9 unfold.

The football season is about halfway done, and things are really starting to get interesting for college teams around the country. So, from now until the end of the regular season, I’ll be updating y’all with all your football news, terminology, and knowledge tidbits every Tuesday!
Why Tuesday, you ask??

Well, starting on HALLOWEEN (one of my favorite holidays), the first College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings come out, every Tuesday. Up until now, we have only seen the Associated Press (AP) rankings, which is a poll voted on by sports writers and broadcasters from around the country. Right now, if you look on my side bar, you can see the top 10 AP rankings, but those will all mean NOTHING come Halloween. The CFP rankings hold much more weight, as they are used to decide the playoff contenders at the end of the year. So on every Tuesday, starting on Halloween until November 28^th, we will see these new rankings. Week after week, we will inch closer to SELECTION DAY on Sunday, December 3^rd, when the four semifinal teams get announced.

(P.S. y’all isn’t Mocha the cutest doodle ever?!)

So here is my rundown on why the CFP rankings are so important, and how easily they can change.  Back in 2014, it was the first year that college football changed over to the new playoff system (the CFP). The playoff consists of two semifinal games and one championship game. If your team is in the top 4, you play in a semifinal game, and have a shot at the National Championship. In the playoffs, the fourth-ranked team plays the first-ranked team, and the second and third-ranked teams play each other. If you’re not in the top four, you are out of the race for the National Championship. For the most part, it’s a good system, but it can be a let down to get left out of the top four. This is why we saw superstars like Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffery sit out of their bowl games last year. Neither of their respective teams were in the top four, and they didn’t see a lot of value in not playing for a national championship. So they didn’t play, because they didn’t want to risk getting injured playing in one last game before getting drafted into the pros.

Going back to 2014: I was a sophomore in College, and it seemed to the horned frog nation the Big 12 was finally getting respected for being a powerhouse conference. TCU and Baylor were the best in the Big 12, each only losing one game. Baylor lost to West Virginia, and TCU lost to Baylor. Baylor defeated TCU on October 11, and at this time, TCU was ranked 7^th in the nation while Baylor was ranked 13^th.  By week 14 (December 2^nd), the CFP rankings had TCU at 3^rd and Baylor at 6^th, just a week before the final rankings came out. When TCU was revealed at Number 3; y’all I cried happy tears! We had one more conference game left to play at Amon G. Carter Stadium against Iowa State the following Saturday. We won that game by a huge margin, 55 to 3. On Sunday, December 7^th, the final rankings came out, and TCU dropped from number 3 to number 6!!! So long happy tears; I was full on mad crying. I was TICKED OFF!! Not to mention our rival, Baylor, jumped from number 6 to number 5, ahead of TCU! I still remember this day like it was yesterday. This new playoff system was SUPPOSED to be equal for all conferences, and give the little guys (aka TCU) a chance to show the world what they were made of. Obviously, the CFP committee thought otherwise. TCU went on to play in the Peach Bowl against Ole Miss, winning 42 to 3. The strong showing proved to the committee, TCU deserved a spot in the top 4. Can y’all tell I’m still super bitter…? Hahaha!!!

Now, this is an appropriate time to talk about the importance of conference championship games. I believe if we would’ve had a chance to play Baylor in a conference championship game, the Frogs would’ve come out victorious and maybe made it in the top four. But that is irrelevant now, because its 2017 and the frogs are 7 and 0! The purple and white still have five really tough games to play in the regular season, and will hopefully get to play in the first Big 12 championship game!! (WAHOO for the Big 12!!).

Well, that’s all for today guys, just thought I could come on here and rant about the worst day of 2014; and let everyone know that not only are the AP rankings meaningless, but the CFP rankings don’t even mean a whole lot until the fat lady sings on selection day. So stay tuned here on Lipstick and Linebackers for all your football updates!

|SHIRT | JEANS | BELT | BOOTIES | WATCH | EARRINGS | NECKLACE 

|BRACELETS (1) (2) (3)| 

So as my first official blog post, I had to write about… you guessed it, FOOTBALL! I seriously cannot believe that we are already half way through the season! Good for us here in Texas, because its FINALLY starting to cool off *insert happy dance here*!  I want to give y’all a quick guide to college football Saturdays.

SCORING

So, first things first, lets talk about scoring. I know some of y’all are like Caroline… come on, we know about scoring; but I want to start from the basics. The main way a team can score points is by scoring a touchdown. A touchdown is worth 6 points; but after the touchdown is scored, the team has the opportunity to: 1) kick for an extra point, or 2) go for a two-point conversion. A two-point conversion is where the scoring team tries to get in the end zone again by running a play from the three yard line. So, once you score a touchdown, you can either get 6, 7, or potentially 8 points. Most teams choose the safer option and kick the extra point, unless they are losing and need to utilize a two-point conversion to tie the game. Another way a team can score is by kicking a field goal, which is three points. A field goal is kicked when a team is on a fourth down, and there is no chance for a touchdown, but they are close enough to the upright (the tall yellow posts that are in the end zones) to kick the ball through. Field goal range is in college is usually around 30 yards, but some field goal kickers can make longer attempts.

WHAT’S A DOWN?

If you’re watching your team either on TV or in the stadium you will hear the announcer say the word “down”. So what exactly is a down?? The offensive team has four attempts to either: 1) score, or 2) gain 10 yards.  Therefore, when you hear an announcer say your team got a first down, you cheer! This means they are making progress down the field. Here is an example: “THAT’S ANOTHER TCU FIRST DOWN”, and the crowd all cheers. Now you know why people are cheering when no one has scored!

|SHIRT|JEANS |EARRINGS|SUNGLASSES|BRACELETS (1)(2)(3)|RING|

PENALTIES

So, now that we know how to score, and how to get a first down, lets talk about those little yellow flags that get thrown by the refs. These can either be a blessing or a curse to your team. Whew, okay this could take a while, so I am going to ease y’all into this.

-When the players are on the line of scrimmage (where the players are lined up face to face before the play starts) here are some of the reasons a yellow flag or penalty flag can be thrown: a false start, delay of game, or offsides. A false start is exactly what it sounds like (kind of like in track when a runner moves before the gun is fired) a player on the offensive moves before the play has started. Offsides is when a defensive player moves before the play has started. Lastly, a delay of game is when the center (the big boy in the center of the offensive line that has the ball and hikes it to the quarterback) doesn’t hike/give the ball to the QB before the play clock gets to zero.

-Holding and pass interference are some other reasons a team can get a penalty. Holding is just what it sounds like, it occurs when a player holds another player and prevents them from moving, and that player doesn’t have the ball. This is usually an offensive player holding a defensive player from moving. Next is a pass interference penalty. This usually occurs when a defensive player doesn’t give the offensive player a chance to catch the ball. The defensive player does this by holding onto the offensive player’s jersey, or making contact with the player before they have touched the ball. Y’all, I am not kidding, there are so many ways to get a penalty, but these are the main ones.

-So what happens when you get a penalty or a yellow flag?? If the offense gets a penalty, they will lose yardage, or they will move further away from the end zone than they already are. If the defense gets a penalty, then the offense will gain yardage or move closer to the end zone.

Well guys, if you made it to the end of this post, WAHOOO! You did it! I know that was a lot of information, but I hope that helps a little bit for this weekend’s games. If you get anything out of this post, I want you to remember this: its okay to ask questions!!  There are times where I am like “what the heck just happened!” and that’s okay! Stay tuned for next week, with a whole post on penalties and the hand gestures the referees make.  If you don’t get it yet, I promise we will all get there together. If y’all want to shop my game day looks click on the links above. I hope you guys have a great Tuesday!!