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Nick Saban releases statement on new Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt for work at Alabama

On3 imageby: Andrew Graham10/14/22AndrewEdGraham
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MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA - JANUARY 11: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide gives the fans a thumbs up after the College Football Playoff National Championship football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Hard Rock Stadium on January 11, 2021 in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 52-24. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

Georgia Tech announced its new athletic director on Friday, naming J Batt, currently Alabama’s executive deputy director of athletics, to lead the Yellowjackets. Batt also serves as the chief operating officer and chief revenue officer for Alabama athletics.

Following the announcement of his hire, Alabama football coach Nick Saban released a statement praising the work that Batt had done in Tuscaloosa.

“Since arriving at Alabama, J has positively affected our program through the success of the Crimson Standard Initiative while being a trusted advisor to our athletic director, Greg Byrne, and an essential part of our administrative team,” Saban said in the statement. “We set a vision for the future of Alabama Athletics and Alabama football through the Crimson Standard and J as well as his team delivered with impressive results.”

Batt came to Alabama in 2017 from East Carolina. Before that, he had made stops at Maryland, James Madison, William and Mary and North Carolina, his alma mater. Batt brings a background in fundraising to the job, as Georgia Tech is known to have significant debt to pay down related to facilities.

Georgia Tech announces J Batt as new athletic director

The Georgia Tech has officially named J Batt as their new athletic director, according to an official statement released by the school on Friday afternoon. The news comes after the school had been searching for a new athletic director since the end of September.

The school let previous AD Todd Stansbury and head football coach Geoff Collins go at the same time to end last month. The school has spent the last few weeks determining which direction they want to go in and it now appears they found their man.

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Batt has spent the last five seasons in Tuscaloosa working with Alabama football, basketball, and overall fundraising for the department. The move is a homecoming of sorts for Batt as a former national champion in the ACC as part of North Carolina’s men’s soccer team in 2001.

He’ll be taking over a big project with how Georgia Tech’s athletics season has started, but with his fundraising skill now at their disposal, the school hopes this will be the positive change they’ve been wanting to make.