Conference alignment is a topic that manages to be humorous, absurd and tragic, simultaneously.     
The first thing you need to know is further conference realignment is inevitable. The Big 12 Conference, which is about as stable as Justin Bieber is masculine, almost imploded last year when conference members Colorado and Nebraska bolted for the Pac-10 (now 12) Conference and Big Ten Conference respectively. Missouri, ever the harlot, attempted futilely to seduce the Big Ten but was ultimately rebuked and remained in the Big-12. Texas A&M flirted with the Southeastern Conference but remained in the conference as well. After all the dust had cleared, the Big 12 was left with 10 members and had become the laughing stock of the sporting community.
Fast-forward to this fall and things are even stranger in the world of college football. Texas, along with its partner and enabler, ESPN, started its own television network called the Longhorn Network. The LHN, which was going to televise high school football games, quickly became a point of contention amongst the other members of the Big 12. For Texas A&M, it was the final straw. Long annoyed by the pretentiousness of the Longhorns and their desire for the Aggies to worship at the pungent hooves of Bevo, A&M shot Texas and the Big 12 the middle finger and set out to join the SEC. The SEC found our maroon-clad brethren to be irresistible (I’m convinced State and A&M are siblings that were separated at birth) and issued them a formal offer to join the country’s greatest conference. All is well, right?
Not so fast. A&M can only join the SEC if the Big 12 agrees to wave its right to sue, which it has, but Baylor, yes, Baylor, has tired of trying to prevent people from dancing and has now threatened to sue A&M if it leaves for the SEC. (Baylor, led by one Ken Starr, is fighting valiantly to ensure it remains “relevant.”) That is where things currently stand.
When A&M eventually joins the SEC, which I believe it will, things will get interesting. The SEC will most likely add another team, and Missouri and West Virginia appear to be the frontrunners for the 14th spot. Clemson and/or Florida State may seem like more natural fits in the SEC, but reportedly the SEC has indicated it isn’t going to take a school that is within the conference’s current geographic footprint. Television sets are the driving force behind conference expansion, and neither Clemson nor A&M adds a large market the SEC doesn’t already have.  Either way, adding a 14th school to the SEC (assuming A&M does join) is going to happen.
The Big 12 is eventually going to fold, and when it does, the path to journey to super conferences will have begun. The PAC 12, Big Ten and SEC are guaranteed to exist, and in all likelihood the Pac-12 would pick up Texas (Texas could also go independent), Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
The Big Ten would expand, but it isn’t exactly clear who it would add. The Atlantic Coast Conference could raid the Big East, which probably result in the Big East adding Big 12 leftovers such as the Kansas schools, Baylor and Iowa State.
When something like this happens, schools that are not able to get into a power conference will be in serious trouble. A proud program like Boise State could be even more disenfranchised than it already is. Schools such as Southern Miss would be crushed from an economic perspective as its football program would lose revenue in  whatever conference were to emerge from the ashes of the Western Athletic Conference, Sun Belt and Conference USA.
It seems trivial at the moment, but I hate the thought of thousands or even millions of people possibly losing the enjoyment they derive from a game that means so much to so many people across the country.
And why might all of this happen? Money, of course. In the mad rush to receive more money in the form of lucrative television contracts, conferences are willing to do anything to expand their share of the market. In what I consider to be the most aggravating aspect of conference realignment, it seems as if a conference’s geographic footprint is no longer important. Missouri and West Virginia have no business being in the SEC, but Missouri would help the SEC gain viewers in the large Kansas City and St. Louis markets. West Virgina joining the  SEC would be equivalent to the The Situation of Jersey Shore being invited to join Augusta National. They don’t belong.
I can’t help but wonder if anything is sacred in football anymore. Is the insatiable thirst for more money so strong that schools are willing to break up decade-old rivalries and travel to away games in places over a thousand miles away?
For a sport that is as much about tradition and a sense of place as it is about the actual game, I would hate to see college football lose the very things that make it great.