As I mentioned above, third tier rights are a bit nebulous. In this context, we are talking about TV rights. UNC probably is making quite a bit on media rights on things like radio, maybe a coaches show, etc. So that $11MM has not gone down to zero. But the portion of that $11M which is related to airing football and basketball has been handed over to the ESPN contract (and not just yesterday's -- this was the case in the contract signed a couple of years ago too).
In the ACC, ESPN has the right to air every single ACC football and basketball game. Now, sometimes they will sell the rights to a syndicated network like Raycom or the ACC Network. But if ESPN doesn't have the room to air the game, and can't sell the game, the school has no rights to air it otherwise. So while this helps the ACC because it offers more national slots to air football and basketball games across all of ESPN's channels, it also hurts because if there isn't room or there is no demand to pick the game up, the game doesn't get aired, and the school isn't allowed to work out a deal to do it themselves.
Conversely, in the SEC, if CBS and ESPN decide not to air a game, the school can run it through pay per view or whatever method they deem best. Alabama did this
last year. Of course, they certainly had the demand for it.
In the Big XII, each school can do whatever they want with third tier rights as well. In the event a Texas home football game or basketball game doesn't get picked up by ESPN on the first tier or Fox on the second, Texas, under the LHN contract, airs it on the LHN. If a KU basketball game isn't picked up by ESPN or Fox, KU can air it regionally through its own broadcasts. Obviously, the schools that have the demand to market their own third tier rights (say like Duke basketball) are the ones that are usually getting picked up by the first and second tier carriers in the first place. And again, in the Big XII and SEC model, a school like Iowa St. or Mississippi St. that doesn't have a ton of demand may see some of its games not aired AND not get to share in the third tier revenue of other schools -- so there is that. At least in the ACC/ESPN model, even if a Duke game isn't aired, Duke is still sharing equally on every ACC game aired on the ESPN networks with the rest of the ACC schools. But this is where a school like FSU might get a little irritable if they think they can market and sell their games not otherwise aired by ESPN.
So there are good and bad sides to each of these philosophies on how to treat third tier TV rights. But to the larger point -- yes, the ACC has given over all of its TV rights to ESPN.
Edited --- Chip Brown's article is a digest of message board rumor and innuendo tied to the facts of contracts and athletic department budgets (just like a lot of this thread, where I think it's fine). They were pimping it on the air in Austin this morning on his morning show, and it's just a joke that they pretend it is breaking any news. The only significance is that Chip WAS out in front in 2010. So now he has a following, and people that haven't been aware of the FSU/Clemson rumors now think there is something to them. I defended Chip in 2010 and a little in 2011, but he's mostly selling his name now and calling it a breaking story because he knows most of the people reading him are hearing it first from him.