It is no great secret that ESPN played a significant role in shepherding Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, much as the sports broadcasting goliath in Bristol has its paws on many other moves in college sports. The Big 12 Conference and commissioner Bob Bowlsby are mad about it… but they now have to prove it in court.
With the SEC voting unanimously (even Texas A&M — the vote was 14-0) to approve Texas and Oklahoma as new conference members on Thursday, the Big 12 faces a difficult set of choices, but the one easy choice is to do nothing.
Earlier this week, the Big 12 sent a cease and desist letter to ESPN, claiming that the network was directly involved in steering Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. Bowlsby used the word “deception” in his comments about the matter, and he essentially made the case that ESPN engaged in collusion.
ESPN — through executive Burke Magnus — fired back with a letter which called the Big 12's charges entirely without merit. This sets up a situation in which the Big 12 faces multiple possible avenues, two of them rising above all others.
The first main path for the Big 12 is to hunker down in litigation and prepare for an all-out war on ESPN. It is not a point of unanimous agreement in sports law circles that the Big 12 has a strong legal case to make, but that belief does exist in some corners of the legal community.
If the Big 12 makes its case effectively and is willing to spare no expense, it could win significant damages against ESPN and possibly wound the broadcasting giant in ways which will change public perception.
The other primary path for the Big 12 is to focus less on waging a case against ESPN and focus more on getting as much compensation as possible in terms of money, TV rights, inventory, and more.
The one thing the Big 12 can't do is sit there and take these punches from ESPN, Texas, Oklahoma, and the SEC. This could be the start of a bitter fight, or it could set the stage for the Big 12 — which was ambushed by Texas and OU and clearly didn't have its finger on the pulse of college sports — to roll over and capitulate.
An obvious point of concern in college sports: What will happen to the eight Big 12 schools left behind after the departures of Texas and OU? Bob Bowlsby needs to fight for those schools as much as he needs to fight for himself.
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