In theory, ESPN 3D is the ultimate sports network, but theory has a way of clashing hard with reality.

Over the past 12 months, ESPN 3D has broadcast a lineup of sporting spectacles that would rival any network available today. College football’s BCS National Championship Game? Done. The Masters golf tournament? You bet. How about we throw in the NBA Finals, professional boxing, the World Cup, college basketball, the Summer and Winter X Games, and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game? Not too shabby.

ESPN has had to single-handedly bear the pressure (and considerable expense) of ushering in a completely unique network that may decide the viability of original 3-D content on TV.

Launched exactly one year ago, ESPN 3D isn’t languishing on some no-name providers. If you’re an AT&T U-verse, DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner or Verizon FIOS customer, ESPN 3D is a phone call or click away. That’s a reach of more than 65 million cable and satellite subscribers, more than enough to get any fledgling new network off the ground.

Toss in the knowledge that this isn’t regular TV we’re talking about but rather 3-D TV, which provides sports with an added visual element that doesn’t compare to your 3-D Blu-ray of The Polar Express, and it would seem like enough fodder for a network ready to change the sports world.

That’s one part of the reality facing ESPN 3D.

The other, more-sobering realization is that families have to shell out hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars to upgrade to a new 3-D-capable TV in order to get the full effect. You also have to wear glasses — well, not just you, but everyone in your household or the local sports bar — in order to savor the novelty of seeing that little golf ball rolling along the undulating greens of Augusta like you never thought possible.

Oh, yeah, and everyone hates 3-D right now. America’s most famous movie critic hates it. Prominent sports reporters hate it. And audiences aren’t turning out in the droves movie studio honchos were hoping to see. What’s getting the brunt of the blame? Higher 3-D ticket prices.

And that’s all just on the front end. Behind the scenes, ESPN, the self-proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports,” has had to single-handedly bear the pressure (and considerable expense) of ushering in a completely unique network that very well may decide the viability of original 3-D content in our living rooms.

If ESPN 3D fails, an entire industry may fail before it ever truly begins.

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