Bob Bowlsby's signature in cease-and-desist letter to ESPN gets Twitter's attention

Tom Gatto

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Bob Bowlsby's signature in cease-and-desist letter to ESPN gets Twitter's attention image

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby put his name on a strongly worded letter to ESPN on Wednesday. Well, we think that's his name and not just a drawing of a wave, haircut or EKG.

He signed a cease-and-desist missive addressed to Burke Magnus, ESPN president of programming and original content. Bowlsby alleged that the network is trying to break up the Big 12 by enocuraging/promising incentives to other conferences to expand and poach Big 12 schools. Texas and Oklahoma announced this week that they would leave the conference in 2025, and then they asked to be invited to the SEC.

MORE: Latest news as Texas, Oklahoma move to exit Big 12

ESPN is a broadcast partner of the Big 12. It owes the conference $1.06 billion in rights fees through 2025, but it wouldn't have to pay if there isn't a Big 12. A dissolved Big 12 would also allow Texas and Oklahoma to not pay a reported $80 million each in exit fees.

And while all that is serious business, Bowlsby's scribbles were unintentional comedy. The internet's attempts to decipher them were just for laughs.

A sample of how Twitter tried to make head or tail of it.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.