Michigan State needs a new athletic director. But first, it needs a president.
Less than three weeks after MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz accepted the same job at Clemson, the athletic director he brought in a year ago, J Batt, accepted the same position at Kentucky. The loss of both leaves a lack of leadership for Michigan State athletics, but there’s a clear order to how those positions will be filled.
“This means we need to move on the presidential search ASAP,” MSU trustee Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing, told The Detroit News.
Michigan State has no timeline to replace Guskiewicz, who is still performing his duties for Michigan State with an unknown departure date for Clemson. As of Monday morning, no interim president has been named, though some candidates have emerged including Democratic U.S. Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan State alumnus from Bloomfield Township.
Likewise, there is no interim athletic director in place for Michigan State, though Guskiewicz released a statement Monday saying he will help name an interim athletic director and outline a search process.
With Batt gone, executive deputy AD Jon Palumbo is next in the chain of command and represented the university at a press conference Monday morning announcing jersey patches for all MSU sports.
It was only a year ago that Michigan State made an aggressive move to fire AD Alan Haller in May 2025, poaching Batt from Georgia Tech in June for a six-year, $12.6 million contract and the payment of his more than $2 million buyout at Georgia Tech. Though the contract was structured with a $5 million buyout if Batt decided to leave East Lansing in his first two years, the impending departure of Guskiewicz activated a clause in Batt’s contract that cut that buyout in half. Two sources told The Detroit News there might actually be a wrinkle there, as Guskiewicz technically had not left as of Monday despite Batt’s departure, which might leave Kentucky on the hook for the whole sum.
At any rate, Michigan State has to start over from scratch only a year after touting the strong “alignment” of its athletic department.
Batt made a number of changes in his first year. He hired a new football coach in Pat Fitzgerald, started a $1 billion fundraising campaign called FOR SPARTA, secured a $401 million commitment from megadonors Greg and Dawn Williams and started a $500 million renovation plan for Spartan Stadium. The same day he left for Kentucky, MSU announced a 10-year jersey patch sponsorship with MSUFCU.
Batt’s biggest brushstroke, however, was the creation of third-party revenue arm Spartan Ventures, with its non-profit Spartan Athletic Foundation and for-profit Spartan Media Ventures. Spartan Ventures revenues make up the bulk of the projected athletics revenues for fiscal year 2027 at more than $114.7 million, though fundraising, ticket sales and parking revenue alongside sponsorship money is routed through Spartan Ventures and influences those numbers.
Spartan Ventures was the brainchild of Guskiewicz and Batt, and Palumbo serves as its CEO with a number of Batt hires filling key positions in its executive team. While Spartan Ventures is structured in a way that acting presidents and athletic directors automatically get seats on its board, it is unclear how Batt’s departure affects the entity’s future, given its July 1 launch date has yet to arrive and an already major change has happened at Michigan State.
It is also unclear how Michigan State will approach its athletic director hire in the context of Spartan Ventures: whether it will hire a candidate with the latitude to change the fundraising strategy, or whether it will hire a candidate who supports Spartan Ventures and its subsidiaries.
Early candidates for Michigan State job include rising star at Western Michigan
Michigan State may not be able to name an athletic director yet, but there are some potential candidates who stand out.
Western Michigan’s Dan Bartholomae has picked up major attention for his success in Kalamazoo, which includes an NCAA hockey championship in 2025 and a 10-win football season for the Mid-American Conference champion Broncos. Bartholomae also started the construction of a new arena in downtown Kalamazoo to replace Lawson Arena and house ice hockey and basketball teams.
Mark Hollis, who was Michigan State’s athletic director from 2008 to 2018, threw his hat in the ring Monday. He told The News that he would consider the job if Michigan State approached him.
“Michigan State can be a challenge for somebody that comes in from the outside,” Hollis said Monday. “It’s an environment that is very different than others. … I had a great relationship with the Board (of Trustees), but it started with sitting down with each one of them and having conversations, with the president’s blessing, so that you could create dialogue, you could have arguments, and you come to solutions and understanding.”
Since Hollis left, Michigan State has gone through three athletic directors in Bill Beekman (2018-21), Haller (2021-25) and Batt (2025-26).
However, Hollis, 63, resigned in 2018 with baggage in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal. Nassar abused hundreds of young women and teenagers under the guise of medical treatment as a doctor with Michigan State and USA Gymnastics. Michigan State settled a $500 million lawsuit with victims in 2018.
Michigan State would need to interview athletic director candidates late in the hiring cycle, with a fiscal year athletics budget set in stone and a number of initiatives ready to launch, including Spartan Ventures. Some close to the athletic department feel promoting an internal candidate for the short term could benefit the department by providing stability.
One such candidate could be Palumbo, who spoke Monday on behalf of MSU athletics at a press conference announcing a 10-year jersey patch sponsorship. He is next in the chain of command of Batt’s department, having been brought in as Batt’s right-hand man from Georgia Tech. There’s a chance Palumbo would follow Batt to Kentucky, but in the meantime he could provide stability for Michigan State, at least until it can finish its presidential search and hire new leadership.
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan State needs an athletic director. First it needs a president
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Connor Earegood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
