EAST LANSING >> All the Michigan State dignitaries showed up to the Tom Izzo Football Building Wednesday to introduce new athletic director J Batt. The coaches, administration, and especially the donors. As he stood and accepted a Michigan State jersey from MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz, a standing ovation welcomed him to East Lansing.

The future of Michigan State athletics hinges on Batt’s ability to lead the department into a new era, both as a university and in an evolving landscape of college athletics.

“This era will continue to be dynamic, require additional resources and provide new challenges daily,” Batt said in his introductory remarks. “… We are well positioned not to survive that change, but to take advantage of it, to take ground, to move forward, make progress. Now we’ll ask everyone in the (MSU) family to pull in the same direction, to do their part, and it’ll require more than we’ve ever done before.”

Batt was named Michigan State’s 21st athletic director June 2, replacing Alan Haller, who was fired May 1. A well-reputed revenue generator and fundraiser, Batt previously worked at Georgia Tech as part of 14 years of athletic administration experience, including stops at Maryland and Alabama.

At Alabama he worked alongside former MSU coach Nick Saban.

“When I set out on this search, I told our board of trustees we were going to aim high,” Guskiewicz said in his opening remarks. “And I appreciate that they supported me in running the search, for the freedom to go land an outstanding top tier athletic director, and top tier is what we are getting in J Batt.”

Batt steps into a Michigan State program with successful men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and various non-revenue programs. But the money maker these days, college football, is an area the Spartans are lagging behind.

A 5-7 marker in coach Jonathan Smith’s first season came as recruiting steam has lagged behind in an era where NIL money dominates the sport.

“Nobody waits for athletics, they want instant success and instant credibility,” said Tom Izzo, men’s basketball coach and co-interim athletic director. “And I think we’ve got a guy that can hit the ground running because of where he’s been and what he’s been through.”

Izzo spoke of the need for a rocket-like climb for Michigan State, a challenge Batt will have to address all while developing his staff and learning about the university as a whole, one making its first external AD hire in 30 years.

Batt made it clear, Michigan State must be successful in football.

“This is a dynamic environment,” Batt said.

“It will require new things brought to the table, new resources. What it takes to be successful continues to change.”

To Izzo, it will take more than Batt to get MSU where it needs to be. It will take the whole athletic department, both internal and external stakeholders.

“There’s no program here that’s going to do as well as they should do without all of us together and I think that is the name of the game,” Izzo said. “Part of his success will be the success we help him get. … We all have an obligation.”

And most importantly, MSU has the leader it feels can reach its high goals.