While the Sun Belt Conference isn’t celebrating Christmas early this year, the league's 12 member universities will receive a nice present later this month.
And it will be a present that the Sun Belt schools wouldn't have expected to be under their tree just five years ago. But now, they are the beneficiaries of financial windfalls due to membership in the Sun Belt both in actual dollars and in other no-less-tangible benefits.
"Five years ago at this time, Sun Belt schools were getting less than $100,000 per year from their membership in the Sun Belt," Commissioner Karl Benson said in announcing a record distribution of funds to league members for a fifth straight year.