The times, they are a changing.

The Cleveland Major League Baseball team has changed its name, and at least two schools are planning to leave the Big 12 Conference.

In a move that has been discussed over the past couple years, the Cleveland Major League Baseball team announced its name will be changed from Indians to Guardians at the end of the 2021 season. Ironically, both names end with “dians.”

Cleveland owner Larry Dolan and his staff considered about 1,200 name possibilities before settling on one that is derived from the 43-foot, art deco “Guardians of Traffic” statues along the Hope Memorial Bridge, entering Cleveland’s downtown district. The bridge was completed in 1932, and is only a few hundred yards from Progressive Field, home of the baseball team.

If you’re an old Indians fan or just a baseball purist, you may want to stock up on Cleveland Indians gear and swag before it’s no longer available.

The team will keep its blue and red color scheme, and a new logo featuring a winged baseball is also inspired by the Guardians statues.

Cleveland is the second team in recent years to drop a mascot name attached to Native Americans, as the Washington Redskins, removed that moniker from the team’s name in 2020. The NFL team is now simply known as the Washington Football Team.

At least the Cleveland folks were smart enough to pick another nickname, and not settle on the generic and bland, Cleveland Baseball Team. However, Washington’s football team has announced it will have another name change next year, adding a mascot or nickname.

OU AND TEXAS MOVING SOUTH

As of this writing, the details are a little sketchy, but it appears the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas have decided to move their athletic programs to the SEC. The decision is based more on television revenue than level of competition.

However, both schools will forfeit (in effect pay the Big 12) close to $150 million in potential revenue over the next few years before the move is made. Right now, it appears both schools will leave the Big 12 following the 2024 school year.

Obviously, the folks at Oklahoma State are not happy that their in-state rival is bolting from the conference, but something tells me they will still continue to schedule football and basketball games against each other for the sake of the ticket sales and revenue.

The sad thing is if you like the current structure of college football with the Power 5 conferences and the college football playoff format, beware. All that is likely to change in the next few years, as more schools switch conferences.

Before all is said in done, about four years down the road, we may see a Power 2 situation, with two large conferences made up of 24 colleges. Is that really what we want?

I can’t imagine the television deals would get any better if that were the case, considering there would be no way to feature the top teams in the conference without ignoring the other 10 or 15 teams that would be begging for air time.

There’s a good chance conferences like the Mountain West, Pac 12 and American will swap some teams and ultimate form a super conference. Stay tuned.