Michigan State president advises board to hire Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt, AP source says

By Canadian Press on June 1, 2025.

Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz is recommending the school’s board of trustees hire J Batt as athletic director, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because the president’s hopes of hiring the Georgia Tech athletic director had not been announced.

Michigan State is expected to announce Batt is Guskiewicz’s pick as soon as Monday, the person said.

With the help of Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo, the school has been searching for an athletic director for a month. Alan Haller’s last day as athletic director was May 11.

Batt has been Georgia Tech’s athletic director since the fall of 2022.

He hired football coach Brent Key, who has led the program to consecutive winning seasons after a string of four losing seasons in a row. He also hired Damon Stoudamire to coach the basketball team and the former NBA player was .500 last season in his second year.

Previously, Batt was executive deputy athletics director at Alabama and served as chief operating officer and chief revenue officer in the athletic department.

Batt is regarded as a strong fundraiser, an asset for any athletic department in this era of college athletics.

He guided the launch of a 10-year, $600 million fundraising campaign to benefit Crimson Tide athletics. He helped raise $78.2 million for athletics in his first fiscal year at Georgia Tech to surpass the previous single-year mark by more than 40%.

At Michigan State, his top priorities will be to raise money and help the football program win — perhaps in that order.

Universities will be allowed to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with athletes next year. Direct payments will be in addition to third-party name, image and likeness deals facilitated by school-affiliated collectives.

Under Haller, the Spartans won Big Ten championships in men’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s gymnastics, men’s hockey and women’s cross country.

Michigan State, though, has had three straight losing seasons in football.

The Spartans were 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten in coach Jonathan Smith’s first year and expectations for them are modest in his second season.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Larry Lage, The Associated Press

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