On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. The North had won, and the Confederacy had been defeated.
Since then, the Confederacy has more or less taken over Abraham Lincoln's Republican party, forced its values on the federal government, and defined itself as the True Voice of Christianity.
And established its universities as bastions of football glory. Its coaches bragged, and the media agreed, that Southern teams were different -- faster, stronger, more clever. Invincible. Until yesterday.
By defeating Alabama, Ohio State yesterday ended a series of nine straight years during which at least one Southeastern Conference (SEC) school played for the national championship. Oregon destroyed and humiliated Florida State, a southern school from a different conference. Michigan State beat Baylor, from Texas, with the MSU band, in the background, playing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." And down in Tampa, Wisconsin defeated Auburn, Alabama's cross-state SEC rival.
On New Year's Day, 2015, Southern football fortresses fell one after another -- defeated by northern and western teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12. It was glorious! Hallelujah!
The South will rise again, of course. It seemingly always does. But for one perfect day, its teams were forced to beat their swords into ploughshares, and surrender once again to those damn Yankees.
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