If organizational alignment was touted as the great strength of Michigan State athletics over the past year, then the departure of MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz for the same role at Clemson holds the potential to throw some things out of whack.
Guskiewicz hired Michigan State athletic director J Batt last June to be his right-hand man for athletics, but the president’s departure triggers a clause in Batt’s contract that halves the athletic director’s buyout should he decide to take a job at another school.
If another school were to hire Batt away, the buyout would cost just $2.5 million, compared to a previous $5 million, as the second year of Batt’s six-year, $12.6 million contract is set to begin July 1.
A clause like that is no anomaly for contracts in the present athletics world. Even some coaches negotiate such a buyout reduction as part of their contracts. Former MSU football coach Jonathan Smith had the same clause in his contract, which was ultimately bought out as Batt and Guskiewicz brought in former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald after a disappointing 4-8 football season.
Guskiewicz’s departure adds to a trend of instability for Michigan State athletics, which is why “alignment” in any form felt like a boon while the Spartans had it. Since July 1, 1995, Michigan State has employed nine different football coaches, eight presidents (with one to hire) and seven athletic directors. Michigan State will have hired new leadership in all three of those positions since June 2025 when it hires Guskiewicz’s successor.
Whether Batt stays or goes in the long run is unknown, but his ties to Guskiewicz were the single strongest draw for him to leave Georgia Tech to take the MSU job in the first place. Batt had been a goalkeeper for North Carolina’s national championship-winning soccer team in 2000 when Guskiewicz performed concussion research with his team. It was North Carolina that Michigan State hired Guskiewicz away from in December 2023. Twenty-five years later, Guskiewicz tapped Batt for the role last June after firing Alan Haller in May. That came with a roughly $2 million buyout paid to Georgia Tech, Batt’s first gig as an athletic director after stops in the front offices of Alabama and Maryland.
Batt and Guskiewicz teamed up to make wholesale changes to Michigan State athletics during their brief year in unison. Their top project was the establishment of Spartan Ventures, a third-party organization crafted to generate more revenue for Michigan State athletics. It is expected to launch July 1. That entity was seeded by a $100 million investment by major donors Greg and Dawn Williams, of Acrisure wealth, as part of a planned $401 million donation package to Michigan State including part of a $1 billion capital campaign, FOR SPARTA.
Yet it may have been the process of creating Spartan Ventures that played a part in driving Guskiewicz away from Michigan State. Its establishment, which some on the MSU Board of Trustees felt was rushed, created a rift between the Board and Guskiewicz. Key points of contention centered around access to documentation of Spartan Ventures’ creation, with some dissenting trustees asking for more transparency.
On May 17, Michigan State’s Board of Trustees called a special meeting to approve a raise of nearly a million dollar to bring Guskiewicz’s contract to $2 million. The Board also approved a change to the Code of Conduct meant to limit public dissent among trustees after Spartan Ventures and the elimination of DEI initiatives had caused trustees to openly oppose Michigan State’s decisions. The measure passed by a narrow 5-3 margin.
In the end, those concessions weren’t enough to keep Guskiewicz from leaving for Clemson, and that leaves a tricky road ahead for the Spartans’ athletic department as Michigan State seeks its 23rd president in school history.
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Kevin Guskiewicz’s departure triggers buyout clause for MSU AD J Batt
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
