The Sun Belt Conference said Thursday that it was extending its television contract with ESPN through the 2027-2028 academic years for all of its athletic events.
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said the financial terms would not be released, but he said "this is a significant increase in the rights fee than we received in the past."
The contract also guarantees that the inaugural Sun Belt football championship game Dec. 1 will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, and that future championship games will also be televised on one of those networks.
Benson said talks to include the Sun Belt championship game in ESPN's coverage started the negotiation to expand on the current contract that is set to expire after the 2019-2020 academic year.
The new contract increases the number of Thursday night Sun Belt football games that will be broadcast on ESPNU from four to six games. The number of Tuesday or Wednesday games that will be broadcast on ESPN2 remains at two games.
All other Sun Belt home football games will broadcast on ESPN Plus, a subscription streaming service that ESPN said will be launched this spring. Nick Dawson, ESPN's vice president of programming and acquisitions, said an ESPN Plus subscription would be $4.99 a month and would be a separate cost from its other services.
Dawson said "we see ESPN Plus becoming a place for Sun Belt fans," and the Sun Belt's release said all men's and women's basketball games would be broadcast on an ESPN platform by the 2020-2021 academic year, with milestones of a minimum of 100 men's games during the 2018-2019 season and 150 men's games during the 2019-2020 season.
By 2020-2021 "a minimum of 500 events a year" including other sports "will appear on an ESPN platform," which Benson said requires some Sun Belt members to install production equipment to make sure the goal is met. He did not specify which Sun Belt members needed production upgrades. Benson also said institutions will have the option to either hire professionals to fill out the production crew, both on-air and off-air, or open the opportunity to students on campus.
-- Brooks Kubena