I write on a few different sites and link those articles from this blog regularly, perhaps with a snapshot of what I found interesting in that story.
I write on the University of Texas’ quest to find teams that can successfully represent the state at Inside Texas.com and link those articles from this blog.
I write on macro-level trends in the game at Football Study Hall, occasionally pausing to note unique teams that are capturing the themes I find interesting but who may be under the national radar.
At SB Nation I try to explain the trends and players that are in the mainstream discussion of college football.
One of the goal of SportsTreatise is to write about sports in an intelligent and analytical way, seeking to find underlying theories and truths that guide the game’s stories and capture the way it reveals and explains human nature.
Football is particularly unique amongst other sports for way that it mimics combat, particularly ancient combat where the outcome was determined by the shock and impact of two armies colliding into each other. What many people in today’s world struggle to understand is that it takes a martial culture to bond young men together and encourage them to risk their bodies with violent impacts and to do so in coordination and chemistry with each other. Some people start to grasp it, only to see it as an evil that should be downplayed.
I see it as a safe outlet for natural instincts and skills that allowed mankind to survive and thrive on this planet and a risky but valuable tool for harnessing the power of teamwork and self sacrifice in young men that could otherwise find less productive and even riskier expressions.
All that said, a bigger theme in my writing is to nail down how much of an expression of regional culture college football can be. The very strategies for victory that define different teams typically flow out of the demographics and culture of the surrounding region. The most revered champions are the ones that allow a community to say “they expressed who we are while proving our people’s worth on the gridiron in a physical contest of sheer will.”
Well, maybe no one’s saying that exactly but they are definitely feeling it. Competition and survival instinct are some of the most powerful forces in mankind and football is a fun and safe way they can be expressed.
Check things out and let me know what you think the comments!
-Ian Boyd