With the latest round of rumors anointing Florida State and Clemson to the Big 12, Virginia Tech to the SEC (again) and Wake Forest set to join a Tupperware club, I can't help but wonder how we got here in the first place.

People will pay money to watch a group of talented people play a game.

In fact, yet another group of people will pay a lot of money for the rights to broadcast said games so that the first batch of people can watch from their house in Poughkeepsie or a parking lot in Des Moines or on the moon.

And all at the same time, we've lost sight of it all. There's been an cash grab far and above any incessant screeching and hollering on the Price Is Right or at your local Shoe Carnival so a desperate housewife can snatch coupons out of a glass case to get $25 off a new pair of flats.

There are some involved who are going to be affected deeply by this. And I just don't see how shuffling teams or programs or dynasties or whatever Tomahawk Nation wants to call these schools to set them up as some sort of valuation in a percentage that doesn't actually mean a single damn thing to anyone accomplishes.

This isn't a simulation.

I know it is easy to make it seem like one, what with relegation being joked about and super conferences being formed, as we slobber all over each other to find the best dual-threat and don't even bother to learn what the kids' first names are instead hoping to focus on their 40-time and what their offer list is. It's a big sham. It's heartless, soulless and pathetic.

It used to be fun. It used to be a way for rivals to crack jokes back and forth, to meet up with old friends at a tailgate or watch your team play games against other teams just like your dad did and his dad did. It didn't used to be about TV rights and prestige and bowl games and Beef O'Brady's.

And I realize we're not going to get back to that. I'm not asking for some kind of pedestrian, good old days (all caps) jamboree. I'm just asking people to have the common decency to care a little bit about everything coming to a screeching halt and blasting apart like one of those Inception dreams.

It may seem like the most important thing in the world to take your tradition and your power and your holy vision of what once was to escape for greener pastures while the striking is still a possibility and not a faded memory, but it has an effect on more than just your selfish selves. It destroys more than just some stupid conference. But I wouldn't expect anyone to care. If you can make a few extra dollars, then good riddance to it all. Isn't that the American Way in the first place?