Bob Bowlsby was the Iowa athletic director when the Big Ten Network launched in 2007 and televised Ohio State’s first two football games of the season — without distribution in Columbus, Ohio. So Bowlsby has seen a conference besieged by outraged fans.
Compared to that fiasco, the Oklahoma State-Kansas State problems on ESPN Plus were minimal.
But the broadcast ensured that all of the enemies of the streaming service going in to the game also were enemies coming out. And that means a missed opportunity for both ESPN and the Big 12.
In the summer, the Big 12 and ESPN announced the internet streaming partnership.