Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., speaks during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on the nomination of Rep. Debra Haaland, D-N.M., to be Secretary of the Interior on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (Leigh Vogel/Pool via AP)

United States senator Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, has called on U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate ESPN’s role in kick-starting the latest round of conference realignment.

In a formal letter addressed to Garland, Marshall asked for the Department of Justice to look into ESPN’s role, if any, in Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.

“I write today to ask that the DOJ investigate ESPN’s role in the potential destruction of the Big 12 Conference and if any anti-competitive or illegal behavior occurred relating to manipulating the conference change or ESPN’s contractual television rights,” Marshall wrote, according to published reports of the letter.

In the letter, Marshall, who has degrees from both KU and Kansas State, cited a recent claim from Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby that the Big 12 has “evidence that ESPN was manipulating all of this.”

ESPN’s role in this round of conference realignment has become a hot topic of late. The network currently is one of two major television partners with the Big 12 Conference. But that contract, which Oklahoma and Texas announced they would not renew, is scheduled to expire in 2025.

The end of the contract and the conference’s grant of rights, along with OU and UT declining to extend the agreement and instead head to the SEC, figures to put the future of the Big 12 in jeopardy.

Last week, Bowlsby sent a cease-and-desist letter to ESPN and accused the network of soliciting the help of at least one other conference — believed by many to be the American Athletic Conference — in trying to break up the Big 12.

A day later, ESPN responded by saying Bowlsby’s claims had no merit.

Others, including Texas president Jay Hartzell and AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco, also said ESPN had done nothing wrong.

Earlier this week, Bowlsby promised to do his part to put an end to the public back-and-forth claims between the Big 12 and ESPN.

“We have agreed to not escalate this publicly,” Bowlsby said. “It’s in neither party’s best interest to do so.”

Marshall’s letter, written on United States Senate letterhead, is dated Aug. 4, 2021 and was sent to directly to Garland.