The success of Ole Miss athletics over the past five years has positively impacted the school in ways Rebel fans could once only dream. From recruiting to fan attendance to brand recognition, the school has leapt into the national spotlight with its across-the-board athletic achievements, but nowhere has that impact been more significant or welcomed than in the university’s pocketbook. Since securing back-to-back bowl appearances, a 2013 SEC Tournament championship in basketball and a trip to the College World Series last season, Ole Miss has seen record fundraising efforts over the course of the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The university capitalized on the building excitement surrounding the athletic program to raise a school-record $49 million for athletics since 2013. “We certainly have troops on the ground going out and seeing people, but obviously success on the fields and the courts play a vital role in us raising money,” executive director of the Ole Miss Athletic Foundation Keith Carter said at a Rotary Club meeting Thursday. “It’s been a really good situation, a lot of momentum right now. I think, for us, the key is as we continue the momentum, to capitalize on it.” A former basketball All-American who led the Rebels to two SEC West titles, Carter is now tasked with overseeing the unprecedented growth in the athletic foundation attributed to a heightened ground effort and recent on-field achievement. The money raised will play an integral role in the university’s new football stadium expansion scheduled to start after the 2014 season. “The stadium expansion will really be in two phases,” Carter said. “We’ll start, after this season, in the south end zone. We’ll build 30 new premium seats, we’ll build about 770 new club seats, we’ll renovate our west sky boxes, and that will kind of be the extent of it between this season and next season.” After that is complete, Ole Miss plans to bowl in the north end zone of Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium to bring capacity to more than 64,000. “Our hope is to, after the 2015 season, then go back and bowl in the north end zone and create kind of a front door as you come in from The Grove, so you can kind of figure out where Ole Miss athletics is,” Carter said. “This is our front door. That’s our next step.” Along with the football renovations, a brand-new basketball arena is being constructed on campus to replace the 48-year-old Tad Smith Coliseum. The arena, scheduled to be completed by December 2015, is currently planned to cost $85 million. The substantial projects are tangible proof of the budding excitement that has resonated in Oxford due to the university’s recent across-the-board success. “I’ve been at Ole Miss since 1995 as a freshman and I don’t remember ever being a time like this where, across the board, we’ve had so much success over the last couple of years,” Carter said. “I work with donors every day. They’re excited, people are giving, they’re engaged and they want to come be a part of it.”