New Michigan State AD Batt made ‘great impression’ with Tom Izzo
Tom Izzo has made a lot of gut checks in his 30 years coaching the Michigan State men’s basketball team. They all pale in comparison to the decision he and other Michigan State leaders made in hiring athletic director J Batt.
Speaking with the added, temporary title of co-interim athletic director, Izzo helped introduce Batt at a press conference Wednesday at an event held in the Tom Izzo Football Building. Izzo took the floor from a university president in Kevin Guskiewicz that he also helped hire, speaking as the de facto face of Michigan State as a university and athletic department. And Izzo expressed a whole lot of faith in his new boss, one that he feels can lead an athletic department that represents Izzo’s life’s work.Michigan State hired Batt as its 21st athletic director in program history June 2 — the 10th since Izzo came to East Lansing as an assistant coach in 1983. An experienced revenue generator and fundraiser from Georgia Tech, Batt is touted as one of college athletics’ rising stars. The 43-year-old will guide Michigan State through the next phase of college athletics’ evolution.I think gut checks are important, and that first night I met him, (the) first impression was a great impression,” Izzo said.A lot more pressure was on the other side of the table to woo the right athletic director to take the reins. Guskiewicz said he told search firm TurnkeyZRG, headed by Chad Chatlos, to find a “top five or six” athletic director in the country to replace Alan Haller, who Michigan State fired May 1. The Spartans chose Batt, who will sign a six-year contract worth more than $1.5 million in annual salary in addition to more than $1 million in buyout costs. Michigan State is pinning its hopes of rejuvenation on Batt’s ability to lead the department through fundraising and wider alignment.
“I said it earlier, this is a top 10 athletic department,” Batt said. “We’ve got great coaches, we’ve got great staff, and we’re part of an incredible university. So the pressure is really only to uphold that standard of excellence.”
