The 2013 BCS National Championship: A Reflection on America's Moral Equivalent of War, Occasioned by the Latest Meeting on the Gridiron of the Crimson Tide and Notre Dame

College football is a cultural dynamo, the sport that like no other taps into Americans’ martial spirit and evokes the fervor of religious faith. Further, it has been a fulcrum of social change; its schemes date back to Hannibal; and some of its themes are drawn from military history and Shakespeare’s tragedies. In the great battles of history and contemporary times, great warriors make great coaches; weak and irresolute generals never win the battle of the gridiron. Author Brandt Ayers use...