Plenty to do for J Batt, but Michigan State football is clear priority
That doesn't mean the Spartans' new athletic director won't be busy. Taking a holistic overview of what will transform his new home into the top-10 athletic department nationally the 43-year-old believes it can become.
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'You've just got to look at all of it,' Batt said Wednesday, June 5. 'Really, my job is to support our coaches. And so what does that look like from a resource perspective? What does that look like from a structure perspective? Staffing, whatever it might be, I'm gonna get in and dig in with our coaches and figure it out and see how exactly I can be helpful.'
Michigan State Athletic Director J Batt, middle, and wife Leah share a laugh with MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo, right, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, before Batt was introduced as the Spartan's new athletic director.
SHAWN WINDSOR: New Michigan State AD J Batt knows the most critical part of his job: 'Football'
At the forefront for Batt, who arrives after leading Georgia Tech since October 2022, will be reinvigorating MSU's football program.
Since winning the last of Mark Dantonio's three Big Ten titles and making the College Football Playoff in 2015, the Spartans are 54-53 overall and just 34-45 in conference play. That includes the final four of 13 seasons under Dantonio and four seasons of Mel Tucker, who was fired midseason in 2023, and his staff.
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Jonathan Smith, who took over last fall in the wake of the messy Tucker tenure that has the school under an ongoing NCAA investigation, went 5-7 in his debut season. MSU failed to make a bowl game for the fourth time in five seasons after Dantonio led the Spartans to 12 postseason appearances in 13 years. The program has not finished higher than third in its division of the Big Ten since 2017 under Dantonio and was 12th last season in the first year of an 18-team divisionless format.
'I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do, and I'm excited to work with him,' Smith said. 'Resources matter. … Facilities matter. Revenue share matters. NIL matters. There's a lot there. And we'll tighten up that, the No. 1 and 2 focuses, once he once he gets over here.'
Batt pledged to fully support Smith, whose team has started summer conditioning and will open the season at home against Western Michigan on Aug. 29. As the NCAA case with the House settlement remains in limbo in federal court, which is holding up revenue sharing and a number of other matters that are scheduled to begin July 1, Batt arrives already holding a seat on the NCAA's House Settlement Implementation Committee, which should give Smith plenty of insight and MSU as a major player in shaping the future of college sports.
'Taking these new changes in stride and finding the opportunity in those changes is probably the most important part of my job right now. And all of our colleagues across the country, right?' Batt said. 'We're on the precipice of transformative change in college athletics — and change we need. I think as we move forward, hopefully into the post-House settlement era, we're going to look for a structure that's got new transparency, new levels of consistency across the board. And that's good for college athletics.'
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THE PLAN: New Michigan State AD J Batt's priority list: Make connections, build fundraising
That also returns back to Batt's vision for fundraising and seeking new outside revenue streams, as well as potential restructuring within the athletic department to enhance the Spartans' name, image and likeness programs. Though obviously it's far too early for a fully formulated plan, one concept Batt floated was to potentially have someone in a 'player management position' who could help MSU deal with players' agents and strategic use of revenue sharing money.
'Innovation particularly applies in college athletics, so we're gonna look at new and different ways to approach this industry,' he said. 'So whether it's revenue, new opportunities for revenue; we'll look at the way we arrange staff. As we look at new and different requirements to be successful in intercollegiate athletics, you're going to have to find new and different ways to serve our coaches and our student athletes so that they can do their jobs really well.'
Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo, who served as co-interim athletic director during the search after Alan Haller was pushed out May 1, pointed to Batt's work as an assistant athletic director at Alabama as a blueprint. Not only was his friend, Nick Saban, winning football championships, but the Crimson Tide hired Nate Oats to revive their basketball program and had a number of other success stories in non-revenue sports while building the financial coffers though Batt's work in securing donations.
Michigan State University basketball coach Tom Izzo speaks Wednesday, June 4, 2025, before MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz introduced J Batt (bottom right) as the Spartan's new athletic director.
'I wasn't looking for just a business guy personally, even though if it would have meant more money for my program, if they thought they could do a better job of that,' Izzo said. 'I think there has to be a balance. I think we're past the days of my former football coach becoming the AD, like happened in my high school, like happened at the college I was at. I don't think that's a clean slate anymore, either.'
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Batt is MSU's first athletic director hired with no ties to MSU since Merritt Norvell (1995-99). He also is the first person to lead the Spartans who arrives already having worked as an AD since Merrily Dean Baker (1992-95), who hired both Izzo and Saban.
'I don't know that's a good thing or a bad thing,' Batt said of being an MSU outsider. 'But I'll tell you: I've certainly worked at a lot of different institutions where I might not have had a tie before, and we've been able to be pretty successful. So it'll work out.'
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State athletic director J Batt's priority: football
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