Why did J Batt leave Michigan State for Kentucky? ‘Alignment is so important’
When Mitch Barnhart announced plans to retire as Kentucky athletics director in March, it would have been difficult to imagine J Batt was a legitimate candidate to replace him.
Batt was just nine months into his stint leading the Michigan State athletics department. He was in the process of creating a new revenue-generating entity to help better position the Spartans for the revenue sharing era and had only three months earlier hired a new football coach.
But between Barnhart’s initial announcement and the time UK’s search for his replacement began in earnest, Batt’s circumstances changed.
UK revealed the formal job description for Barnhart’s replacement on May 21, announcing the eventual hire would carry the dual titles of athletics director and CEO of Champions Blue LLC. Six days later, Michigan State president Kevin Guskiewicz was named president at Clemson University.
Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State. He cited tension with the school’s Board of Trustees as the reason for his departure.
For Batt, Guskiewicz’s departure meant the buyout he would owe to leave Michigan dropped by half to $2.5 million.
“I think part of what is so exciting about the University of Kentucky is that it is built for this next era … but it’s also so aligned,” Batt told the Herald-Leader Monday when asked about his departure from Michigan State. “From the president, the board, down to our longtime coaches, that alignment is so important, and that is really one of the keys to the future of college athletics.
“Gone are the days where maybe athletics could exist in its own bubble. That alignment is so important.”
Batt pointed to UK’s creation of Champions Blue, a nonprofit LLC that houses the athletics department, last year as proof the school was already adapting to the new college sports landscape ushered in by revenue sharing with athletes.
While he said he could not yet compare the structure of Champions Blue with Spartan Ventures, the nonprofit revenue-generating organization he was helping to develop at Michigan State, Batt acknowledged schools were all searching for the same flexibility moving forward.
“The reality is, you’ve got to build the right structure to stay nimble, and you’ve got to have the right differentiated fan base to take advantage,” Batt said. “...What are the guidelines? What are the rules? How do we work within those rules? We’re going to win, and we’re going to win the right way.
“This is going to be done with integrity, as it has been done here. You’ve got to stay flexible and nimble, though, and that’s part of what Champions Blue does for us. It creates a structure that allows us to be able to move and react and even anticipate changes. I think it’s important that we look forward to what is the next change and how do we do that in the right way.”
Batt’s departure from Michigan State after just one year on the job has led to questions about his willingness to stay in a job long term. Batt served as athletics director at Georgia Tech for three years before taking the Michigan State job.
But Batt’s relationship with Guskiewicz — they first met when Guskiewicz was a doctor at North Carolina and Batt played soccer there — offers a clear reason for the move.
The uncertainty in East Lansing was also evident Monday as Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo reacted to the turnover.
“I can’t stand what’s going on, and I’m not going to over-talk about it now, but I am in the very near future. I’ve had it,” Izzo told the Detroit Free Press. “This is self-inflicted. We just lost the best president to ever been here, maybe — one of the best. And there’s other dominoes that get affected when things go wrong like that.
“I’m very upset about it, and I’m sick of it.”
Kentucky has yet to specify a start date for Batt’s tenure, but he met with the school’s coaches and administrators in Lexington Monday before conducting a series of interviews with local media.
Barnhart’s last day at UK is June 30. That timeframe gives Batt some time to gather feedback and explore the possibility of any staffers from Michigan State or other previous stops joining him in Lexington.
“We have a great athletic department (at Kentucky),” he said. “We have a great athletic staff. You can’t build a championship culture like the one that exists here without having great people that are truly committed to the University of Kentucky in the athletic department. So, that’s first and foremost.
“Second, the most important thing to do in a transition like this is to listen, so I’ll ask a lot of questions,” Batt said. “I’ll listen, and we’ll evaluate. We’ll evaluate, hey, what things can I help bring to the table that will help bring folks to the table as needed? I think I’m fortunate. I’ve been doing this for a while, and have a network of folks that would want to be a Kentuckian. Who wouldn’t, right? This is an incredible place, but the most important thing is I’m going to listen and learn first.”