Tom Izzo reflects on ability to help choose Michigan State AD as coach

The Michigan State Spartans athletic director search came to an end with a bang, bringing in J Batt, who previously had been the AD at Georgia Tech. Heavily involved in the process of bringing him in was legendary men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo.

Since the hire was made, Izzo shared some of his thoughts on being involved in the AD hire as a coach. There, he explained that it was more than an opportunity to make a hire but to better the university as a whole.

“That’s pretty cool,” Tom Izzo said. “I got to be involved in with the president and his selection and with the AD and his selection. That’s one thing I’ll say that Michigan State really did for me was, I think I’ve given a lot to them, but in a lot of ways, they’ve given me the opportunities to help this place grow after I’m gone.”

Ultimately, Izzo was part of a larger group that met with Batt. They would vet him and have conversations with him about plans moving forward. There, he clearly made a good impression on the legendary basketball coach.

“I think now we’ve got a president that’s gonna do that, and I think we’ve got an AD that, so far, is gonna do that, but what I said, I meant. We have to help people be successful. I don’t think we look at that sometimes as our jobs. I look at my job as — we selected the president,” Izzo said. “I want to do everything I can to help him be successful. We selected the AD or a football coach, I want to do everything. If everybody felt the same way, we’ll have a better, stronger university. I really believe that.”

This hire comes at an incredibly delicate time for college athletics. The House settlement has been agreed upon, which is going to lead to revenue sharing, a new enforcement agency, a third-party NIL clearinghouse to review deals, and add roster limits. That’s while the Transfer Portal and College Football Playoff remain open questions for many moving forward. Amid all of those changes, Tom Izzo shared that this AD hire was “the most important” in Michigan State history. Now, the hope is he made the right hire for everyone.

Tom Izzo: NIL fundraising most important part of J Batt’s job at Michigan State

There are numerous jobs an AD has to take on in their role. From Tom Izzo’s perspective, though, J Batt’s biggest job is going to be NIL fundraising.

“It just has to be,” Tom Izzo said. “You can look at it any way you want to look at it, but it is what’s critical for all of us. Then, fundraising in general that $20 million that we’re going to spend — that wasn’t just given to us. Every athletic department is going to be subject to raise money to help that, the facilities and how much we give to each program. So I think fundraising is a major part, yet as a business man you have to understand the athletics to that.”