(Big 12 commish Dan Beebe. If he looks smug, that’s because if the conference falls apart, he knows he’ll find work as a Jim Cornette impersonator)

There’s conflicting reports Friday regarding the likelihood of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for a newly expanded Pac 16 (at least one prominent authority on the subject predicts the above schools are staying put), but the Dallas Morning News’ Jean Jaques Taylor would just soon seen the Big 12 go the way of the old Southwestern Conference. “This is the capitalistic world we live in,” insists Taylor. “You don’t get to indulge in capitalism only when it’s convenient.”

If you thought college football was something other than big business, then you’ve been living in a fantasy world, and it’s time you moved into the real world where the rest of us reside.

You think the Mountain West won’t be a better league with Boise State in it? If Texas A&M, weary of being UT’s little brother, wants to join the SEC, then so be it.

Surely, if the Aggies can’t compete at the highest level of football in the Big 12, then we know they’re going to take butt-kicking after butt-kicking in the SEC.

That said, the Aggies deserve an opportunity to forge their own identity even if it spells the end of a wonderful rivalry with UT that’s more than 100 years old.

Then again, how much of a rivalry is it when the Longhorns lead the series 75-36-5, and A&M has not finished ahead of UT in the Big 12 South standings since 1998?

College football is bigger than any school or any rivalry. It survived the end of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry, and it will survive if UT and A&M goes by the wayside.