M president Dr. Shirley Raines talks about athletics and finances. By John Branston Dr. Shirley Raines greets University of Memphis basketball fans. Dr. Shirley Raines, the new president of the University of Memphis, was introduced to the general public at the U of M-Marquette basketball game, a detail of some significance. I university, you do it at a football or basketball game.
Sports sometimes seems to be the tail that wags the dog on college campuses.
There are just 250 scholarship athletes on campus, or barely 1 percent of the student body. The bulk of the athletic budget goes to the care and feeding of the 90 or so who are on the men s football and basketball teams. Taking this distillation process one step further, only the basketball team, with eight scholarship players, actually makes money. And over that program is Coach John Calipari, who outearns President Raines, her predecessor Lane Rawlins, and every professor on campus by a wide margin. The reason, of course, is that Calipari is a celebrity paid on an entertainment scale.