The world of college football has gone crazy in the last week.

Nebraska to the Big Ten. Colorado to the Pac-10. The Big 12 South, aside from Baylor, could be headed to the Pac-10 — unless, of course, Texas A&M opts for the Southeastern Conference. Or maybe the remaining Big 12 teams will stick together after all.

Maybe even Notre Dame will change its mind and join the Big Ten.

Is this fun or what?

In life, change is inevitable, and it comes whether you want it or not.

No one said change didn’t hurt. Or it was easy. Or it would be comfortable.

It never is.

But change leads to growth; and most of the time, after we’ve had an opportunity to reflect, we conclude change is good.

There will be a host of old-timers and traditionalists — fuddy-duddies, if you will — who will moan and groan about the changing landscape of college football.

They’ll whine about money driving this particular change.

Schools want more money, and the easiest way to get it is with a lucrative television contract, whether it comes from ESPN or CBS, or the conference creates its own network like the Big Ten did.

That’s why Northwestern, Indiana and every other Big Ten university received a check for $20 million last year.

This is America, a nation founded on capitalism.

Heck, the ABA and NBA merged. The WHL and NHL merged. The AFL and NFL merged.

The Big 12 emerged from the death of the Southwest Conference, and it has been fine — until now.

So spare me all of the hypocritical rhetoric about why the emergence of a few super conferences is bad for college football.

It’s not.

This is the capitalistic world we live in. 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.

There will be casualties.

But change also represents an opportunity for some schools to find a better circumstance.

You think the Mountain West won’t be a better league with Boise State in it? If Texas A&M, weary of being Texas’ 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.

Remember, college football is bigger than any school or any rivalry.

It survived the end of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry, and it will survive if Texas and Texas A&M goes by the wayside.

One reason the SEC championship game between Florida and Alabama generated so much excitement last year is because the winner was headed to the BCS championship game.

Now, we’ll have three or four more games like that every year.

Imagine USC and Texas in the Pac-10 or Super 16 or whatever-we-call-it-conference championship game. Ohio State and Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game. Boise State and TCU in the Mountain West championship game.

Eventually, these games will wind up being part of a playoff system that gives us a true college football champion instead of our current system that uses computers to determine who plays for the crystal egg.

That change wouldn’t be so bad, would it?