Photograph by Wes Hale)
Ed Scott with Tom the Tiger on the University of Memphis campus.
Ed Scott arrived on the University of Memphis campus in July 2024 to assume his duties as senior vice president and director of athletics. Jump ahead 12 months and both the Tiger football team and men’s basketball team finished their seasons ranked among the Associated Press Top 25, a first for an academic year at the U of M. Can a new sports administrator be considered a lucky charm?
“I’d like to think that,” says Scott with a chuckle, “but I just think our coaches did a really good job and our student-athletes followed the game plan, and executed.”
As the only child of a single mom in Kingston, New York, Scott gravitated to sports in part because coaches made great babysitters. Theresa Scott often worked two jobs and recognized the value of not just athletics, but the structure teammates and coaches brought to her son’s life. As it turned out, Scott was talented on the playing field, particularly a baseball diamond. As long as he earned As and Bs in school, he could play year-round. (He also played soccer and basketball in high school.) Though recruited as an outfielder by several schools, Scott didn’t fill out a college application until a late-summer visit to the University at Albany in 1997.
He developed into an all-conference centerfielder for the Great Danes, hitting .385 as a senior in 2002, and played one year of independent-league professional baseball with the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs. But he felt a calling to his alma mater, the athletic director at the time — Dr. Lee McElroy — representing the first Black male role model in his life who wasn’t a coach.
“My mom wanted to teach me how hard baseball was, because I said I wanted to play professionally. You get an average of four at-bats a game. She’d put four items in a paper sack: a sandwich, a drink, a cookie, and some chips. How many of those I got to enjoy depended on how I played in the game.” — Ed Scott
Christi Turner got to know Scott during his playing days at Albany, where she rose to director of student-athlete support services. He was personable, curious, quick with a smile. And he showed an interest in sports administration, visiting Turner’s office without an appointment, just absorbing that side of college athletics.
“He didn’t act his age,” says Turner. “He acted a lot older. Great communication skills. He was connected with students and well-respected by the administration, even as a student-athlete. He’s competitive, like me, so we were on the same wavelength with goals we wanted to accomplish.”
Turner hired Scott to be her assistant in January 2003, and dropped a happy bombshell four months later. Pregnant with her first child, Turner told Scott on May 1st that she was having her baby … and that he was now in charge. Turner gave birth on May 2nd, and Scott served a few months as interim director, not even a year removed from his time as a Great Danes outfielder. A career was launched.
“He was a natural, meant to be in the role,” says Turner. “Passionate, great communicator, organized, compassionate, and leads by example.”
Dr. McElroy gave me a book,” explains Scott, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. We built a relationship. When they offered me the job, I had two questions: How much do you pay, and do you have health insurance? I figured out two things about myself immediately. Number one, I love to grow people. Look at [Memphis men’s basketball coach] Penny Hardaway. People have asked me what I did for Penny, who just had the best season of his career as a coach. I gave him an environment where he could grow and be himself. I love when the light bulb comes on and you can see them achieve what they want. The second thing is, I’m competitive. I get up in the morning looking for a good fight. I’m wired that way.”
Competing is one thing, executing another. “My mom wanted to teach me how hard baseball was,” reflects Scott, “because I said I wanted to play professionally. You get an average of four at-bats a game. She’d put four items in a paper sack: a sandwich, a drink, a cookie, and some chips. How many of those I got to enjoy depended on how I played in the game.” Scott, you see, also learned to cook his own meals. An 0-for-4 night often meant boiling some pasta. Theresa Scott’s son never went to bed hungry, but he also learned what it meant to earn what you eat. “Execution is worshipped,” he likes to emphasize.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WES HALE
University of Memphis athletic director Ed Scott during last September’s game between Memphis and Kansas State.
Scott spent two decades in sports administration before his arrival at the U of M. Most recently the deputy athletic director at the University of Virginia, he also worked at Morgan State in Baltimore, George Washington University, and Binghamton University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2019. But he felt a calling to Memphis when offered his current job, one that began to tickle his thoughts on a visit more than a decade ago.
“My wife [Tara] is from Louisville,” he says, “and the city reminded me of our time there. When we came for a friend’s wedding, I got to see parts of the city, parts of the campus. I told her, ‘If this job ever comes up, I may take it.’ And when I did my research, I came across that Me in Memphis promotional campaign. I saw the number of minority students and the exceedingly large number of first-generation students. This population that I can serve reflects me and where I come from. I saw me in Memphis. People who come from where I come from, but may need a voice to help them get where they want to go. The impact I had on a student at the University of Virginia is not as great as I can have here in Memphis, because the starting point is different.”
Overseeing a department with 200 employees and a $70 million budget brings a lengthy list of priorities. Scott shared thoughts on three.
• The $226 million renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium
A considerable section of the 60-year-old stadium’s west side was removed before the 2024 football season, a gap that will be filled by multiple levels of luxury seating, a gigantic video board, and a multipurpose plaza. While capacity for football fans will be reduced, the gameday experience will almost certainly be enhanced.
“We’re on target for September 2026, and we’re on budget,” says Scott. “I’d much rather have more demand than supply. Think about Duke basketball. The nostalgia of Cameron Indoor is one thing, but [the small arena] allows you to change the economics. We didn’t want to renovate a stadium and have the same problem we’ve always had: It’s too large for the environment. We look at tickets in three ways: How many do we sell, how many people actually show up, and what kind of atmosphere are those people creating?
“People are buying luxury [seating] these days,” Scott adds. “And I’m not sure many people understand how large the new tower at this stadium will be. The old box looks like a tugboat in comparison. If we build it right, we’ll be able to get other events.”
You can count Tiger football coach Ryan Silverfield among those impressed by Scott’s early impact, and it stretches beyond his home stadium. “Ed has worked extremely hard to continue to raise the profile of the University of Memphis,” says the sixth-year coach. “His passion and support have been clearly seen in the culture of all programs.”
• Paying student-athletes
With name-image-likeness (NIL) funds and authorized revenue sharing, the athletic scholarship has become a somewhat quaint notion in big-time college sports. Scott must not only manage the budget for an athletic department as a whole, but also for each of the programs that belong to that department, from a revenue-monster like football to not-as-lucrative teams like men’s golf. What’s more valuable to Hardaway: a 14th scholarship for his basketball roster, or the value of that scholarship in revenue-sharing to help retain a star player?
“Part of our responsibility on how we educate [student-athletes] has to shift,” says Scott. “Financial literacy [courses] should be mandatory in a college curriculum. They’re still 18 to 22 years old. There’s still a huge educational component. What we do with them now will likely stay with them the rest of their lives.”
Scott actually identifies some value in an athlete hopping from one school to the next, as many as four campuses in five years. “There’s the education that happens in the classroom,” notes Scott. “But there’s the rest of education that comes with it. Say a student transfers to Memphis. He’s had to deal with change, with different demographics, and interject himself with a new team and determine how he adds value. Knowledge of self is the most important knowledge any human can have. How can you lead other people if you can’t lead yourself? They’re also learning who they can trust.”
Scott has taken a somewhat counterintuitive approach to managing these team-by-team budgets: He starts by letting each coach ask for what they’d like. Number of scholarships. Amount of revenue-sharing funds. From that request, a conversation (if not negotiation) takes place, and the athletic department allocates an agreed-upon figure for each team to maximize its chances for success.
“If I tell coaches how their money will be used — scholarships or revenue sharing — I’m handcuffing them,” says Scott. “I’m giving them the resources they need, then evaluating how they use it.”
• Conference affiliation
For fiscal year 2024, the Atlantic Coast Conference (one of the NCAA’s four “power conferences”) brought in $711 million in revenue. The American Athletic Conference (current home for the U of M) brought in $148 million. To the consternation of many Tiger fans, Scott declined a 2024 invitation for Memphis to join a new version of the Pac-12. (A league once known for USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Cal, now includes the likes of Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State.)
“I listen to everybody,” says Scott. “I read everything I can get my hands on. I even pay attention to social media. We’re members of the American. We haven’t won a football championship under Coach Silverfield. That’s my number-one goal this fall. And to keep soccer playing for championships. My first priority is being a good member of the American, and trying to dominate it. From there, the secondary option has always been — and before I came to Memphis — getting into a Power Four conference. The Pac-12 stuff … I’m still waiting for their media deal. I can’t talk seriously about joining a league until I know what the financials are. We can’t go backward financially.”
As for fans resisting the current state of things and protesting by not attending Tiger games, they’re wrapping themselves in layers of status quo. Because viewership (of televised events) and attendance are the key drivers for conference realignment. “You have to do right by where you are,” emphasizes Scott, “but it’s my responsibility to have one eye around the corner. The decisions I make are not just about now, but what positions this athletic department for many years to come. If we get believers rowing in the same direction, we’ll be where we want to be with conference realignment.”
Remember that paper sack Scott’s mom packed for him before baseball games? The aim is to enjoy all four items. Good for a ballplayer and, it turns out, good for a university.
