Here's where I agree with you Chuck. Sometime, not so long ago, (though it seems like eons) The ACC trustingly placed thenselves in the benevolent hands of Mother ESPN. ESPN called the shots on expansion. ESPN controlled the timeline for the network. The ACC sold the entire media rights package to ESPN. The ACC, not just Swofford, did not want to take on the task of navigating, and negotiating these contracts in the confusing new world of cable networks and conference realignment. The ACC has ever since been subject to the will of ESPN. Jim Delany exhibited, not just business sense, but genuine courage to defy ESPN and jump into the cable network business. The SEC faced less risk, but still jumped into the fray. The PAC adopted an even more risky model, and they are feeling the consequences. But they had the guts to make their own way. It wasn't brains or business sense that the ACC leaders lacked, so much as courage. The Big 12 have been spectators in the network era. Look where they are.
ESPN will serve their own best interest in the deployment and management of the ACCN. And a profitable ACCN is certainly in their best interest. But the timid approach of the ACC leaders is, as you have often said, the cause for so much money being left on the table. The ACC guys didn't have the "stuff" required to go after it.