INSIDER: Seven names to watch as Michigan State begins another athletic director search
Each offers a different path forward – and raises a different question Kevin Guskiewicz must answer before choosing MSU's next athletic director
For the first time in three decades, Michigan State went outside the university to hire its athletic director. J Batt’s arrival from Georgia Tech in 2025 broke a pattern that had held since Merritt Norvell was hired in 1995. Every permanent athletic director between Norvell and Batt had established significant ties to Michigan State before taking over the department.
Batt represented a deliberate departure from that history.
President Kevin Guskiewicz wanted Michigan State to think beyond the familiar names that had traditionally shaped the department, examine the strongest leaders in college athletics, and pursue a sitting athletic director capable of navigating an era increasingly driven by revenue sharing, NIL, fundraising, major facilities projects, media opportunities, and the growing business demands surrounding college sports.
Just more than a year later, Michigan State is searching again.
According to information gathered by Spartans Illustrated, TurnkeyZRG is once again involved as MSU begins evaluating candidates to permanently replace Batt, who is leaving for Kentucky after an unusually brief tenure in East Lansing.
The return of the same search firm does not necessarily mean Michigan State intends to repeat the same process or prioritize the same type of candidate. It does suggest Guskiewicz wants another organized search capable of evaluating both the national market and a group of candidates with significant connections to the university.
Several names are already emerging.
You’ve reached the paywall. Spartans Illustrated subscribers can read about seven names emerging in Michigan State’s athletic director search. Among them are current MSU administrators, former Spartan athletes and leaders, a sitting Division I athletic director, a prominent businessman with deep university ties, and one of the most successful athletic directors in school history.
The full analysis examines what each candidate would offer, the questions surrounding their candidacy, and what TurnkeyZRG’s return may reveal about whether Kevin Guskiewicz intends to search nationally again or place greater value on relationships, institutional knowledge, and fit.
