KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you’re wanting to watch Tuesday’s Sunflower Showdown on cable, you can’t.
When the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks and No. 7 Kansas State Wildcats continue a rivalry that dates back to 1907 at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Allen Fieldhouse, the only way to watch the game (legally) is through the ESPN+ app.
The streaming service, which launched in April 2018, has the rights to every team in the Big 12 Conference except the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners. Telecasts of those games are under the branding “Big 12 Now,” without the national Big 12 announcing team of Jon Sciambi and Fran Fraschilla.
This is not the first time the Jayhawks have had a major conference matchup on ESPN+.
Less than three weeks ago, then No. 2 ranked Kansas hosted then No. 14 ranked Iowa State on the platform. The game commemorated 125 years of Kansas basketball, as more than 160 former players, coaches and staff showed up at Allen Fieldhouse to celebrate the historic program.
So what is being shown on ESPN instead? A doubleheader that starts at 6 p.m. with each team being unranked.
Simply put, ESPN wants you to subscribe to their service, a practice that the Lawrence Police Department is against.
It's a crime against decency that the KU-KState game isn't on cable, not an actual crime. We have no jurisdiction here.
— Lawrence Police (@LawrenceKS_PD) January 31, 2023
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