Memphis will be in rarified air this coming athletics year, for two reasons. The Tigers will be one of two Group of 6 programs to publicly state they will dole out the full rev-share allotment to their athletes, and they'll be among the unknown but certainly few FBS programs to spend more of that money on basketball than football.
All of the above was revealed by Memphis AD Ed Scott in a refreshingly candid interview with the local ESPN radio affiliate in Memphis.
Why is Memphis spending more on basketball than football? The answers essentially boil down to small-p politics: timing, and seniority among the respective head coaches.
After spending just shy of $5 million in rev-share on men's basketball in 2025-26, Memphis will balloon that number to $9 million in 2026-27. This, despite -- or, spun in a different light, because -- the team went just 13-19 last season.
“I can tell you, as of today, men’s basketball is going to be at $9 million guaranteed rev-share,” Scott said on the J&J Show. “And a lot of credit to Penny Hardaway. We did that joint press conference. You heard his plan. He’s been out executing his plan.
“The athletic department is up to what we can give them, the university has stepped in and I can tell you, in the almost two years that I’ve been here, Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway has never worked harder, probably in his career as a coach, to garner support. He’s done a really good job partnering with me to help me get that money to where it is today.”
Arguably the best player to ever play at Memphis, Hardaway won an NCAA Tournament game in 2022 and led the Tigers to the Big Dance in 2023 and '25. Memphis also has a stronger history in basketball than football, with two trips to the national championship game, three Final Fours, 11 Sweet 16s (although none since 2009) and 29 tournament appearances. "We cannot deny that Memphis basketball is something special," the AD said. "It’s different than other places.”
Scott also said that the basketball portal opening in April, compared to January for football, made it easier to allocate money toward the hoops team.
“The reason why is we set our rev-share budgets for the start of the fiscal year. Penny’s up first because his guys sign in April when that portal opens up. I think the average fan doesn’t realize that," Scott said. "We set the budget for football last year at $7 million. So that means that half of the year, they get it. And then, this half of the year, the back half – because football’s a calendar year. Easiest way to explain it. Football’s portal opens in January. So their budget is already set before that portal opens."
That said, Scott insisted he's not starving Charles Huff's football team to feed basketball. He plans to grow the football team's rev-share allocation to $10 million for the 2027 season. The overall rev-share is expected to grow from $20.5 million to $21.3 million in the second year since the landmark House Settlement. South Florida is the only other Group of 6 program to publicly state they expect to spend the full House allotment.
“I had a conversation with him at ‘Tigers on Tour’ in Atlanta," Scott recalled. "Huff and I were talking and I said, my goal is to get you $10 million, if not above that, next year in rev-share. What that does is that puts football at the level that they need to be at."
Memphis has appeared in a bowl game in 12 consecutive seasons, technically the longest active streak in the Group of 6, and the program's last three head coaches exited for Power 4 jobs, an inconvenient but telling sign of health for G6 programs.