ESPN will not sell ACC content to the conference for the same reason that Israel would not sell short-range missiles to Hamas: the content/missiles will be used against them. An ACCN that is not produced by ESPN will need to be programmed with content already owned by Raycom and Fox. The players are likely:
Raycom: content and production
Fox: content, production, on-air talent
NBC: production, on-air talent, pathway to cable carriage
ACC: non-revenue sports content, branding/licensing
Splitting the pie four ways is brutal; Raycom or Fox could be left out. Fox has 17 FB and 25 MBB. Fox and Raycom combined have 31 FB and 60 MBB.
ESPN has a bounty of ACC content, and they allow much of it to wither on the vine. They clearly want to constrict the amount of live sports on the air at any given time. That helps bolster their ad rates.
While writing that last line, it occurs to me that we don't know if ESPN applied any restrictions to the content they sold to Raycom. Could those games be contracturally confined to regional cable or syndicated distribution. (Just the pessimist in me.) ESPN may have given themselves that protection. Another possible barrier. This would remove the leverage that we anticipated for the conference in 2017.
Cobb, I think we need to keep brainstorming. A conference network for the ACC will be a complex, risky and entirely compelling venture/adventure.