The NFL and NCAA both play American style football, but there ends the similarity. To maximize their value, the NFL has settled its franchises into the biggest, fattest markets in the nation. GreenBay, the exception to this, has its legend to exploit.
I can't disprove your theory about consolidating the conferences, but I'll suggest why it might not be true.
If the NCAL could pay each school $60 million, Jim Delaney could rightly reason, "If not for the Carolina schools holding us back, we could be making $80 million." The B1G schools are just worth more. They are HUGE. They have HUGE alumni populations. They have HUGE stadiums. Their schools are well distributed across their substantial footprint. There seems to be little internal stress or envy among the members. That's easy when the wealth is flowing.
Compare that to the ACC. How ESPN would hate the idea that they'd pay that $60 million four times just to access the North Carolina Market. Would they feel good about paying another $60 million to BC? For what?
The ACC has some unique demographic characteristcs, the only one of which we like to talk about is the total popultion in our footprint. Most of our footprint overlaps the area of the SEC and the B1G. Aside from the Carolinas, the advertisers have a choice of where the spend there money on Saturdays in the Fall. Compare the ACC offerings to the other two. This will become a messy entanglement when ESPN starts selling ads on the ACCN. Will they try to package ads on both networks? If I'm the SEC, Ill say "Don't you dare!. You are obligated to maximize our revenues/profits. Do not package our games with a less valuable product." There will likely need to be separate, discrete sales organizations. Who prevails in that?
The importance of a successful ACCN cannot be overstated. If the ACCN cannot bring the ACC within striking distance of the leaders, it is just a matter of time until the two big boys eat us for lunch. The ACC added two schools, actually two states, (PA & NY) just to get their millions of cable boxes. If the network launches and there soon arises talk of adding schools like Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, that will be the sign that we are finished.