J Batt is MSU’s new Vice President and Director of Athletics, becoming the 21st person to hold that role. His hiring was announced on June 2, 2025, following a national search. Batt brings experience as a student-athlete at UNC, and he served as the Athletic Director at Georgia Tech before coming to MSU.
What attracted you to the AD position at MSU?
First and foremost, it’s the opportunity to be part of a top ten athletic department in the country and part of a tremendous, strong conference. As we head into this era of intercollegiate athletics, having alignment with the university and the president is important. So, having familiarity with Dr. Guskiewicz and understanding his approach to college athletics and our values around that being aligned is a huge positive. And, really too, the tradition. The Spartan athletic tradition is awesome. It was a no-brainer, and I was all-in from the start.
What's the state and future of college athletics with things like NIL, the transfer portal and revenue sharing?
The good news is that we're entering an era where there's some transparency, there's some structure, there's some consistency across the board. We're heading into an era of opportunity. Particularly at Michigan State, we're so perfectly poised to head into that next era. I have a lot to learn about the way in which we'll do that and tackle that on campus, but it's an opportunity for change and growth.
What are some of your short-term goals at MSU?
It's about building relationships, whether it's our fan base, our coaches, our student-athletes or our donors. We have incredible donor support at Michigan State. We have incredible alignment with Dr. Guskiewicz and our trustees. So, spending time understanding what's important on those fronts and learning some of the things that's important to our coaches and how we can support them.
How does your own experience as a student-athlete inform your leadership?
As a student-athlete, I would not have been able to go to North Carolina but for the fact that I was a soccer player. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to be on a national championship team and experience competition at the highest level. What my time as a student-athlete taught me is that this is about opportunity, but it's also about competition. What Michigan State fans will see from me is one fiery athletic director that likes to win and we're going to operate at the highest levels of integrity at all times.
Hear more from J Batt on the MSU Today Podcast with Russ White HERE.