Michigan State’s athletic department is making a major change at the top in searching for its next athletic director. It’s also going to have to replace another important figure in its front office.

Darien Harris, a former Michigan State linebacker who played a key role in the development and evolution of the athletic department’s NIL strategy, has left for a job with the NFL’s New York Giants.

Harris will become the Giants’ director of player engagement. He leaves East Lansing having served in a number of roles in the Spartans’ athletic department, including as the football team’s director of player relations and program advancement. He stepped into a role with the wider athletic department in July 2023 as an assistant athletic director and special adviser to former athletic director Alan Haller. In May 2024, Harris’ title changed to assistant AD/business development and NIL strategy.

In the NIL sphere, Harris developed Michigan State’s EverGreen NIL program. His biography on Michigan State’s athletics staff directory describes him as the “primary contact” between programs, athletes, coaches and NIL partners wishing to partner with them. He was a staunch defender of Michigan State’s NIL efforts on social media, a rare vocal presence in an era when many officials in athletic departments work behind closed doors.

These are opportunities that weren’t available to him as a player, when he was a four-year letterwinner with the Michigan State football team, captaining the 2015 team to a Big Ten title and College Football Playoff appearance. In 54 career games, 25 of them starts, Harris recorded 154 tackles and was part of Michigan State’s winningest senior class in program history.

Michigan State’s front office has undergone substantial change this year. A little over a year after becoming president of the university, Kevin Guskiewicz fired Haller on May 1, embarking on a wide-ranging hiring search the past month. Guskiewicz told The Detroit News earlier this week that he is “close” to a hire. In the NIL era, Guskiewicz said the next athletic director will be one who can raise money to compete with other Big Ten programs, an issue that may only become more prominent as the NCAA prepares for revenue sharing to go into effect as early as July 1 with the ongoing House v. NCAA settlement.

“It’s a much more externally facing job today than it’s ever been,” Guskiewicz said, “and it’s about the connectedness to the donor base, the alums, the folks who can help us with sponsorships and to generate revenue.”

In February, Michigan State hired executive Jon Dykema from the Detroit Lions to oversee its NIL contracts and other deals, bringing more than 15 years of experience in compliance and roster management.