I don’t know if Dan Bartholomae will be a great athletic director for Michigan State. But news of him being hired as MSU’s next AD is being well received. And that’s worth something.
I also haven’t found anyone who didn’t think Bartholomae did a nice job as the AD at Western Michigan over the last 4 1/2 years. That’s worth something, too. Because while WMU and MSU are on different levels, many of the talents and instincts required to succeed in the AD role are similar. Same for the challenges.
This is about managing people, priorities and projects, having a vision, setting a culture and fundraising. And, unfortunately, not in that order.
Bartholomae, by several accounts, had a knack for all of that in Kalamazoo and in his stops in athletics prior to WMU. Also, people just seem to like him. That’s not everything. But it’s not nothing.
On Aug. 31, the 46-year-old will take over the top job in MSU Athletics — a department that’s in the middle of a massive transition and at arguably the most critical juncture in modern times. Spartan Ventures might have been J Batt’s creation. But it’s Bartholomae’s baby now. It’s too far down the pike. It’s what MSU is doing and its success will largely determine whether MSU can compete with the big boys financially in the Big Ten and beyond.
For MSU’s next AD, that means being able to check your ego. New leaders love to change things and set their own course. Bartholomae will have room to do that and the opportunity to shape Spartan Ventures to some degree, and as pivots are needed. But he’s got to work to make Spartan Ventures stronger, not remake it. I’m certain he and MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz have had those discussions.
Guskiewicz created the upheaval at the top of MSU Athletics when he decided to leave for Clemson. That propelled Batt to leave for Kentucky. Then Guskiewicz changed his mind. He didn’t hesitate in hiring Bartholomae, who comes with a $5.1 million buyout owed to WMU (MSU is receiving $3.95 million from Kentucky for hiring Batt.). This looked like a wise choice, right down the road.
People who know Bartholomae will tell you he’s probably a good fit for this. He’s known for being a steadying force and even-keeled in difficult situations, for making people feel like he’s in the foxhole with them and for being dialed in on the student-athlete experience. His people skills include giving out quarterly culture awards during staff meetings, with the winners getting stickers with sayings from the show “Ted Lasso.”
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Importantly, he understands how to get capital projects over the line. He did so both as the chief operating officer at Oregon State, helping to spearhead a $161 million football stadium renovation in the middle of a pandemic, and at WMU, where he championed WMU’s role in the long-discussed downtown arena project, the Kalamazoo Event Center — a $515-million venue whose tenants will include the WMU basketball and hockey teams. WMU mega donor Bill Johnston funded it and made it happen. Bartholomae, wanting modern facilities for the Broncos, embraced the gift and collaboration.
Under Bartholomae, WMU raised money for upgrades to Waldo Stadium, for the soccer stadium and for a women’s golf training facility. WMU Athletics might not exist in the same financial stratosphere as MSU does. But Bartholomae will have experience finessing a notable donor class, including some serious old money in Kalamazoo that doesn’t exist in East Lansing.
Bartholomae oversaw WMU’s athletic department during both amazing and challenging times — from winning a hockey national championship to managing the ramp-up of NIL and the chaos of the transfer portal, and what that’s done to mid-major athletics. WMU’s football program won the MAC championship last season, the third season under head coach Lance Taylor, who Bartholomae hired. The men’s basketball program has struggled to compete in the turbulence of this era. Bartholomae hired and fired longtime Tom Izzo assistant Dwayne Stephens during his time at WMU.
“I like this new (WMU) AD (Bartholomae),” Izzo said in 2022 after Stephens was hired.
Bartholomae wouldn’t have been brought in at MSU without Izzo’s blessing. He’ll be important to Izzo’s final chapter and, perhaps, critical to shaping MSU’s future post-Izzo (though I thought the same about the Spartans’ last two ADs).
Bartholomae will immediately jump into fundraising campaigns to renovate Spartan Stadium and Jenison Field House. He’ll be charged with elevating the NIL resources for Pat Fitzgerald’s football program. And he’ll have a chance to set a tone with MSU’s non-revenue sports that is honest without feeling like a blow with a blunt object. It’ll be interesting to see who he brings with him and who stays. Interim AD Jon Palumbo is the CEO of Spartan Ventures. He and Bartholomae have to be on the same page.
Bartholomae, though, will set the culture and could be the primary decision-maker for a pivotal half-decade of Spartan athletics.
Early returns are that this was a smart hire, a needed hire. I’ve also thought that before.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and on BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: Dan Bartholomae looks like a fit for this pivotal time for MSU Athletics
Reporting by Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
