EAST LANSING >> 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.

“I think gut checks are important, and that first night I met him, (the) first impression was a great impression,” Izzo said.

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.

Since the advent of the transfer portal and NIL deals for college athletes, Michigan State’s stature in both the Big Ten and NCAA has slipped. In 2015, Michigan State became the first athletic department to send teams to the College Football Playoff and men’s basketball Final Four. In 2025, its football program has lost momentum after two coaching changes — one of them clad in scandal — and lagging donor support. Its basketball program is adapting to less and less star power, even if Izzo coached it to a 30-7 Big Ten championship and Elite Eight appearance in his 30th year as head coach.

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.”

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.

That’s a steep cost. But the cost of missing on this hire? Perhaps even steeper.

“Someday they’re going to hire a new basketball coach, a new football coach, a new volleyball coach,” Izzo said. “I mean, time goes on, and if you got somebody at the top that understands all that, and that is willing to go out and raise money and do the things that we have to do now and be a leader in that area, I think it’s going to be very valuable.”

Izzo was part of the group that vetted and pitched Batt, including making a trip to meet Batt himself. That’s where Batt made his strong impression.

“I was really impressed,” Izzo said. “I went into it, ‘Let’s not rush it. Let’s not do this. Let’s not do that.’ And I think the President (Guskiewicz) did a phenomenal job. I think all the people that interviewed (Batt), they had some Zoom calls, and I was just privileged to be one of them that got to go to meet him personally.”

Since the hiring became official, Izzo has gotten plenty of congratulatory texts and calls from his connections across college athletics, many of whom vouched for how strong a hire Batt is. The list includes ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who oversaw the conference Batt’s Georgia Tech program played in. It also includes retired Alabama coach and former Michigan State coach Nick Saban, as well as former Maryland coach and administrator Gary Williams.

“If you can work for those two guys, you can work for anybody,” Izzo joked at the podium.

Saban’s praise for Batt particularly stands out. From 2017 to 2022, Batt was Alabama’s executive deputy director of athletics, chief operating officer and chief revenue officer. He helped fundraise for renovations to Bryant-Denny Stadium, as well as the day-to-day expenses of running the nation’s premier program. Saban coached at Michigan State from 1995 to 1999.

“You all know, I love Nick and I think that being in a program that has been the elite … that’s important,” Izzo said. “They built a good basketball program there, but also their golf and their soccer, they’ve got other good programs there.”

Izzo himself is a champion of all of Michigan State’s athletic programs, whether that be as a peer, a fan or even as a donor. It’s common to see him attending games and practices across all of Michigan State’s 23 varsity sports and beyond. He feels that Batt’s background as a national-championship winning soccer player at North Carolina and as a business-oriented administrator is a quality mix that gives him perspective on all sides of the changes to college athletics.

“I wasn’t looking for just a business guy, personally,” Izzo said, “even though it would have meant more money for my program if they thought they could do a better job of that, I think there has to be a balance. I think we’re past the days of my former football coach becoming the AD like happened in my high school, it happened at the college I was at. I don’t think that’s a clean slate anymore either. I think someone has (to have) both.”

Most importantly, Batt has strong chops as a fundraiser, the same as Guskiewicz and as Izzo himself. It’s in that role that he can make a strong impact with a donor base that will need to pledge far more money in an era when $20.5 million in revenue sharing will exist alongside the already exorbitant money in the NIL market.

“The same reason I really liked Kevin when I first interviewed him on the committee, the first thing he said is, ‘I love to fundraise,’” Izzo said. “And I said any president that says that, he gets a vote from me and he gets a ‘what the hell is wrong with you,’ because nobody likes to fundraise. And J kind of said the same thing — ‘When I get into fundraising, I’m in a different mode,’ — and that was exciting and that meant something to me.”

Michigan State has its leader, but it will take more than just an AD change to get Michigan State’s athletic department back at the top of college athletics. It will take alignment, as Batt explained in his introductory remarks. It will also take patience from fans, for which Izzo pleaded.

“Our fans need to get with us,” Izzo said. “Don’t be fair-weather fans. Understand there is a process to being great.”

With trust and patience, Batt may prove Izzo’s gut check right.