NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference and ESPN announced today that all games from the conference’s upcoming baseball and softball championships will be available exclusively on the network’s newest platform – ESPN+.

The Sun Belt recently announced a longterm multimedia rights deal with ESPN that will see the two partnered exclusively until 2028. As part of the deal, ESPN+ will be the home for hundreds of Sun Belt contests each year. The softball and baseball championships will be the first Sun Belt championship events for viewing on ESPN+.

ESPN+ will offer fans a lineup of live sports, original content and a library of award-winning on-demand programming – all for a subscription price of $4.99 per month. ESPN+ will be an integrated part of a completely redesigned and reimagined ESPN App that will be the premier all-in-one digital sports platform for fans. ESPN+ will also be available through ESPN.com.

The 2018 Sun Belt Softball Championship is set for May 9-12 at Alfred and Helen Lamson Park on the campus of Louisiana. Just a week later, Louisiana will host the 2018 Sun Belt Baseball Championship at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park from May 22-27.

About ESPN+
ESPN+ is ESPN’s first-ever multisport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service. For just $4.99 a month, subscribers will be able to sign up or cancel at any time to receive thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks. This includes MLB, NHL and MLS games, college sports, boxing, golf, tennis, international rugby, cricket, the entire library of award-winning 30 for 30 documentaries and more. Fans will access ESPN+ as an integrated part of a completely redesigned ESPN App. Already the leading sports app, the new ESPN App will give sports fans an unmatched, one-stop digital sports platform that provides easy, dynamic access to everything ESPN offers, anytime, anywhere across mobile and OTT platforms. With a richer, increasingly more personalized experience, the new ESPN App will curate all of ESPN’s incredible content into a content experience unique to each fan’s individual tastes.

About the Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference continues to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in competition. The 2016-17 athletic season showed that the Sun Belt Conference takes a back seat to no other league in its competitive balance and in proving itself deserving of its status as a member of the NCAA’s highest conference tier.

The Sun Belt has gone 8-3 in bowl games the past two years, which makes the Sun Belt’s winning percentage the best among all conferences. In fact, over the past four years no one ranks higher in bowl winning percentage than the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt also had the most wins and best win percentage among the “Group of Five” peer conferences, including victories over teams in the two top-rated leagues in the final computer rankings.

During the recent 2016-17 academic year, Sun Belt member institutions awarded over $50 million in scholarships to more than 3,100 student-athletes, while also providing life experiences such as team building, domestic and foreign travel, community service, mentoring and recognition through honors and awards.

Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy will give the league 10 football members and enable the Sun Belt to inaugurate divisional football play and stage a conference championship game in 2018. Little Rock and UTA compete as Sun Belt members in all sports other than football.