Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has accused ESPN of encouraging other conferences to pick apart the league so Oklahoma and Texas can move to the Southeastern Conference more quickly and without paying a massive buyout.
“I have absolute certainty that they (ESPN) have been involved in manipulating other conferences to go after our members,” Bowlsby told The Associated Press on Wednesday after sending a cease-and-desist letter to the network.
The letter addressed to ESPN executive Burke Magnus, president of programming and content, said the Big 12 had become aware the network had taken actions “to not only harm the Big 12 Conference but to result in financial benefits for ESPN.”
ESPN, which owns the SEC Network, signed a $3 billion deal with the SEC last year that will give the network the broadcast rights to all of the league’s sports starting in 2024. The network also has a rights deal with the Big 12, though it shares those rights with Fox. Those deals expire in 2025.
The Big 12 demanded the network stop “all actions that may harm the Conference and its members and that it not communicate with the Big 12 Conference’s existing Members or any other NCAA Conference regarding the Big 12 Conference’s Members, possible conference realignment or potential financial incentives or outcomes related to possible conference realignment.”