Michigan State is embracing a new chapter within its athletic program as MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz introduced J Batt to be the 21st vice president and director of athletics of the university. Batt spoke of his excitement to be a part of the green and white family and to take on this role with a vision, alignment, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.
Guskiewicz made it clear that Batt is the right leader for MSU, especially in this transformative era in collegiate athletics.
“J is a visionary leader,” Guskiewicz said. “With a strong rep of success and a deep commitment to student-athlete development and a passion for building championship-caliber programs rooted in integrity and academic excellence.”
Batt’s resume speaks volumes about the leader Guskiewicz hopes he will be for Spartan Athletics. He iscurrently the director of athletics at Georgia Tech, a position that he has held since 2022, where he led unprecedented growth in fundraising and facility development.
Before Georgia Tech, Batt served as a senior athletics administrator for the University of Alabama, helping to elevate student athletes' resources for support and helping to build the national championship programs.
Guskiewicz is confident in Batt’s ability to continue the success he has had in previous years and that his background will help blend the crucial aspects of Spartan athletics.
“J is committed to excellence in every dimension of the student-athlete experience,” Guskiewicz said. “Competitive success, academic achievement, personal development, and community engagement.”
Since before Batt’s career even began, he has been learning about the student-athlete experience as a former student-athlete himself. Batt played soccer at the University of North Carolina and was a member of the 2001 NCAA championship team. He understands the value of opportunities that college sports provide and claims his time as an athlete helped shape the kind of athletic director he intends to be for Michigan State.
“I learned a lot during that time as a student-athlete,” Batt said. “I learned what it meant to be a part of a team or what it meant to win at the highest level, but it cemented to me that college athletics is about opportunity. I learned the impact a coach could have on the life of a student-athlete.”
Batt centers his leadership philosophy around the value of alignment, believing that unity among players, coaches, and staff must be emphasized to ensure adaptability in the dynamic and evolving world of sports.
“The key to that success is alignment,” Batt said. “Under President Guskiewicz's leadership ... we are well positioned, not to survive that change, but to take advantage of it, to take ground, to move forward, and make progress.”
Batt emphasized the changes occurring in collegiate athletics in reference to the new era of NIL and funding that has begun to change sports in an extreme way. Both Guskiewicz and men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo feel confident in Batt’s ability to navigate this new era. Specifically, Izzo mentioned Batt is a guy who understands this new era, and Guskiewicz claimed Batt is someone who understands the business side of modern day college athletics.
“It’s a new era, fortunately, or unfortunately, where we have to do a lot with the NIL and fundraising,” Izzo said. “He’s been in some good places. He worked a little bit with Garry Williams at Maryland and of course, he worked five or six years with Nick Saban. If you can work for those two guys, you can work for anybody.”
In the lead up to Batt's introduction, Izzo spoke about the pressures of this new era in modern athletics.
“You’re either going to fly like an airplane or you’re going to take off like a rocket and right now we have to take off like a rocket because nobody waits for athletics,” Izzo said. “They want instant success and instant credibility. I think we have a guy that can hit the ground running because of where he’s been and what he’s been through - he has the knowledge of the new era.”
Success and credibility are two things Batt spoke about his commitment to, emphasizing his drive to get Spartan programs winning at the highest levels and his aim to harness the strong foundation already built, while adding to the list of historic Spartan accomplishments.
“From 27 national championships, transcendent athletes, and iconic coaches, we have it all; this place is special,” Batt said. “This is a top 10 athletic department in the country. I look forward to applying hard work, energy, effort, creativity, and the highest level of integrity each and every day to support our coaches and student-athletes as we strive for that level of success.”
Batt specifically made his intentions with MSU football clear saying that Michigan State’s success cannot be isolated to just a few programs and rather requires success from the revenue sports to help drive the rest.
“It’s imperative that we support all of our sports, but do not be confused, every athletics department competing at the highest level must be successful in football,” Batt said while looking at Jonathan Smith in the crowd. “We will do everything we possibly can to dive in and help Coach Smith and continue to drive excellence and support you in all you need coach.”
Moving forward, Batt made sure to emphasize the personal honor he feels in joining the Spartan family, as well as his commitment to shaping MSU athletics. Batt’s actions already speak for themselves as he has wasted no time reaching out to the MSU community.
“I’ve heard from so many people here in the room in the past couple of days that he’s already called you, some of you, many of you, and texted with you,” President Guskiewicz said. “That’s who he is. You will get to know J Batt and that’s what will take us to the next level.”
Batt acknowledges that he has a lot to learn about (and from) the Spartan community and made a note that his first job will be to listen and learn while spending a lot of time asking questions, as well as meeting with coaches, athletes, and staff.
Guskiewicz summed up his confidence in Batt powerfully by simply saying, “This is a guy that will get it done.”
He is not alone in that belief as Izzo said, “I think you’re all going to be really excited.”
The admiration for J Batt immediately gives light to the leader Michigan State has found with his perseverance to guide this dynamic era of college athletics, grounded principles that align with the Spartan nation, and his focus on alignment and integrity. Batt could mark the beginning of a strong and successful era in MSU sports and even mentioned the rocket analogy Izzo brought up earlier.
“Change is an opportunity and alignment is the biggest strength,” Batt said. “I believe we have it here at Michigan State… that alignment is truly powerful. Our coaches, our student-athletes. It’s all pointing that rocket fuel on up.”
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