 College football is among the South's greatest sources of pride and shame. Pride because, well, we're just better than y'all at it. Don't just take my word for it. Of the last 20 college football national championships, we've won 16 of them. Scoreboard, bitches. Y'all may have us beat when it comes to literacy, civil wars, and the dental arts, but there's no doubting Southern supremacy on Saturday afternoons. As a result, the game brings Southern people of all ages, creeds, and colors together. Like sweet tea, or eating the best parts of the pig. The shame comes from the fact that the gridiron hasn't always been a unifying place for all Southerners, especially Black folks. See, things just take longer down here, whether it's a pastor Sunday sermon or integrating a college football team. Don't start feeling self-righteous, you Yankee college football fans, if you even exist. The North played a big role in keeping college football segregated too, by collaborating with the South on the so-called Gentleman's Agreement. Like antebellum, or lost cause, the Gentleman's Agreement is a highfalutin, sounding phrase that refers to some messed up s*** the South was responsible for. In this case, it refers to a deal in which Northern teams agreed to sit their Black players when they faced off against Southern squads. Damn, man, say what you will about the South, but y'all Northerners benched some of your best players just to placate us? I am extremely offended, not only by the racism obviously, but also by this just totally half a s*** dedication to winning football games. This is how Northerners do, as we've been saying, that's how they do. This deal kept the peace until about the 1950s, when Northern teams began recruiting more Black players and benching them became more impractical. South's first fully integrated college football game took place on November 29, 1969, between Florida A&Ms nearly all Black team and the University of Tampa's predominantly White squad. There were real fears that the game could set off riots. It actually ended up being an amazing game, a couple of levels. You just sold out of stadium, a super exciting game went down literally to the last play, and everyone behaved in a completely civil way. One of the state's most opposed to integration was Alabama, which also happens to be the home of our nation's most dominant college football program, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. The rise of integrated Northern teams confronted Bama with the ultimate Sophie's choice, keep segregation alive, or lose the college football war. To get a sense of how deeply entrenched segregation was in the Yellowhammer State, consider this, many powerful individuals chose segregation over football. Like Governor George Wallace, who Yankees may remember as the guy who literally stood in front of a schoolhouse door to prevent Black students from entering. George was just as adamant about keeping segregation alive on the gridiron, and he let the University of Alabama president know that he would cut their funds if a Black student ever suited up for the Crimson Tide. Perhaps the only dude with the juice to stand up to Wallace was another Alabama legend, football coach Bear Bryant, who had already led the Tide to several championships. And it's truly impossible to know if his decision to do so was driven by altruism, or if he was worried about losing out on national championships to teams that had broken the color barrier. What we do know is this. In 1970, Coach Bryant took matters into his own hands and orchestrated a huge public turning point in the fight for college football integration. Here's the legend. In 1970, Bryant invited an integrated University of Southern California team down to Tuscaloosa to beat his team's a** so badly. It would prove that all White teams no longer had any chance of competing. Some historians scoff at the notion that the notoriously competitive Bryant would ever intentionally serve his boys up for a loss. On the other hand, one witness said that Bryant was smiling ear to ear afterwards and even thanked the opposing coach for the whooping. It sends that direct message, right, that you're going to have to to keep up with the big dog. Since then, the South has gradually ascended back to the top of college football. Turns out trying to sign all of the players and not just the White ones is a pretty decent recruiting tool. As a result, the list of national champions from the last 50 years looks like the back of an Allman Brothers tour shirt. Hell, even Tennessee got one in 1998. Despite the progress over the last half century, there's still a lot that needs to be done to address racial disparities in college football in both the South and the North, by the way. Like the fact that while 57% of college football players are Black, there are only 14 Blackhead coaches out of 130 teams. Well, that's not gloss over the good, either. Football can bring people together. In Knoxville on a Saturday in the fall, for those three to four hours, the only colors anybody gives a s*** about is orange and white. I think there's a moment for you to feel hopeful because I've never high-fived more white men in my life in one place than a Georgia game. The South is one of the most diverse places in the country, and while we don't agree on everything, there is one thing that can get us all on the same page. Being able to kick the North s*** at something is pretty sweet.