UNC, Duke, NC State prepare for launch of ACC Network

The much anticipated and long awaited ACC Network makes its debut Thursday night at 7 p.m.

It's the culmination of years of work by the league and its broadcast partners and they are certainly hoping that sweat will soon pay off in tens of millions of additional dollars for the ACC and its member schools.

While the network is headquartered and will broadcast its flagship shows from ESPN's mega-base in Bristol, Connecticut, there will be content flowing in from every school.

As part of the network's launch, each school was required to build a broadcast quality studio facility on campus. From those studios, opportunities will abound for students to participate in the process of creating network shows.

While coverage of football and basketball is never lacking, everyone unanimously touts the new network as a godsend for the non-revenue sports.

Exposure and coverage should grow exponentially, something that surely has to excite those athletes and coaches.

We were given a tour of the new digs at NC State and Duke.

UNC is still hammering away to get things finished ahead of Thursday's launch, so we couldn't check out their new base of broadcasting operations.