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EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN - AUGUST 29: Athletic Director J Batt of the Michigan State Spartans walks off the field after a college football game against the Western Michigan Broncos at Spartan Stadium on August 29, 2025 in East Lansing, Michigan. The Michigan State Spartans won the game 23-6. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The foregone conclusion became official early on Monday morning as Kentucky announced they have signed a deal to make J Batt their new athletic director. Just one year into his term with the Spartans, the nomadic fundraising guru is on the move again. It probably was not too tough to predict this happening as soon as MSU lost their president, Kevin Guskiewicz, earlier in June. The changing of the guard at president meant that the buyout another school would be on the hook for was slashed in half from 5 million to 2.5 million dollars.
For J Batt, going to a school with a president entrenched in their position offers some desirable job security. Not knowing who MSU’s next leader would be, or even when he or she would take office, and how he would mesh with them, certainly left Batt in an uncomfortable position. He probably did not want to have to deal directly with the Spartans Board of Trustees in the absence of a president.
For Michigan State, this leaves us in an unprecedented phase of instability. Sure, an interim AD has been named in Jon Palumbo, who came from Georgia Tech with Batt. But who knows if he doesn’t end up following Batt again. But without the endorsement of a sitting president, one must wonder how much authority Palumbo will have in his new role. At the same time, the search for a new president, if done properly (I’m not assuming it will be) could be a months-long process. At that point, we are already into next football season and quickly approaching hockey and basketball seasons. The final domino which could fall, after we find a new president and after a permanent AD is named, is the job security of new football coach Pat Fitzgerald. Will Fitz approve of the new leadership? Will the new leadership approve of him? (I am assuming Tom Izzo, Adam Nighingale, and Robyn Fralick all have much more job security at this point.)
Here is what I am hoping for in my current bitterness. When the Champions Classic rolls around in November and the MSU and Kentucky basketball teams are in the same building (we are not matched up against each other this season), I hope Tom Izzo sees Batt in the United Center corridors and lets him know that he picked an inferior athletic department and, specifically, the men’s basketball team. Then I hope we play Kentucky in a bowl game and we push them all over the field for four quarters in a blowout. And then I hope that MSU and Tucky meet in the NCAA Tournament next March and MSU advances by embarrassing the Wildcats up and down the court for 40 minutes.
Okay, time for MSU to try moving forward. Hopefully, we get some good news before we get any more bad news.
Actually, we did get some good news this morning, though details are still unknown. There was a press conference earlier today where it was announced that MSU would be entering a new sponsorship agreement with MSU Federal Credit Union whereby all MSU varsity sports would have an MSUFCU emblem featured on their uniforms. Michigan State is the first Big Ten school to start wearing a patch, but a few other major conference teams already have begun taking advantage of this new ability.
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