**** The Link-Up Is now at the bottom of this post!!! ****
Football season is approaching rapidly, so that means it’s time for everyone to show their school spirit!
Last year, we had the first carnival to see how the blogosphere divided up according to the rivalries of our state. Alabama won last year, and Auburn was second, ALMOST overtaken by Arkansas fans! So I fully expect Auburn to step up to the plate this year and show their competitive spirit.
Although the button above just shows Alabama and Auburn, You can participate in this carnival no matter what team you root for!! If I don't already have a button available for your school, ask me for one and I’ll make it!
Participating is a great way to get to know other Alabama Bloggers, have other bloggers visit your blog, and a fun way to celebrate the onset of football season.
And as a bonus, we have two amazing sponsors that will be rewarding some of the participants!
The amazing Birmingham Gourmet Burger joint, Baha Burgers, will be providing $10 gift cards to five randomly selected participants. You don’t have to be on the winning team to win one of these – you just have to participate in the Carnival.
If you haven’t tried Baha Burgers yet, you’re missing out! They have the most delicious hamburgers in Birmingham. They have two locations - Chace Lake in Hoover and the Colonnade on 280. They have gourmet burgers of every variety, including Angus Beef, Lamb, Pork, Turkey, and Chicken! You can pick one of their finely crafted and topped burgers, or you can select all of your own toppings from their extensive list! They also have a choice between regular fries and sweet potato fries, both coming with fried okra mixed in with them. It’s a MUST TRY experience.
And the grand prize is provided by Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe – one winner will be chosen at random from the winning team to get a tailgate party catered by Taziki’s for 10 people!
Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe currently has seven locations – six in Birmingham and one in Huntsville - and will be soon opening new locations in Tuscaloosa and Morgantown, WV. They serve up an amazingly delicious variety of Mediterranean inspired cuisine, with choices for everyone.
If you win the grand prize, you can choose a catered meal for ten people of either Chicken Roll-ups with fruit and chips or the Friday Special, which is one of their customer favorite dishes of Grilled Chicken and pasta tossed in homemade balsamic vinaigrette and served on a bed of mixed lettuces with feta, tomatoes, and fresh basil.
SO. Here’s how the Carnival works:
You can score points for your team in three different ways:
1. Field Goal: You score three points for your team if you put your team’s button on the sidebar of your blog (buttons will be below). Be sure to comment on this post or the next post that you added the button so I can properly add your field goal!
2. Touchdown: You score seven points for your team if you write a blog post about your football experience/team/thoughts with your team’s button at the top, and you link up to the Score For Your Team Post that will go up next Tuesday.
3. Extra Point: You can score one extra point for your team by tweeting or facebooking about the Football Carnival. Be sure to comment on this post or the next post that you tweeted or facebooked!
As far as the prizes go, you will get one entry into the drawing for the prizes for each point you score for your team.
And, as a bonus, you can get extra entries into the drawings by:
Again, let me know that you earned any of these entries in a comment so that I can credit them to you!!
The link-up will go live Tuesday, August 24th. You can link up your posts anytime between then and Monday, September 6th. The winning team will be announced on Tuesday, September 7th, as well as all of the prize winners.
You can go ahead and start scoring field goals and extra points now – again, if I don’t have one for your favorite school yet, let me know and I’ll make one!!
Here are the codes for the buttons. To grab one, just copy and paste the code below the button of your choice. You can either paste it into a blog post or a sidebar (for Blogger, choose an HTML/Javascript Gadget). Let me know if you need any help!
Alabama Large (400px):
Alabama Medium (200px):
Alabama Small (150px):
Auburn Large (400px):
Auburn Medium (200px):
Auburn Small (150px):
Arkansas Razorbacks:
Mississippi State Bulldogs:
UAB Blazers:
Tennessee Vols:
Penn State Nittany Lions:
Let me know if you have any questions about how the carnival works!!
Here's the Link-up - be sure to link the specific URL of your Score for your Team post - not just to your main blog URL. If you have any questions as to how to do this, let me know!! Be sure to go visit the other participants and read about their Football Experience!
Let the scoring begin!!!!