East Lansing — Pat Fitzgerald has been around college sports long enough to be agnostic about a leadership change. He knows what it’s like when the athletic director cutting his checks heads for the door, as he ran into previously at Northwestern. Heck, he went through it once again in June when J Batt left for Kentucky six months after bringing him to East Lansing.
“I was excited to work with him,” Fitzgerald said Monday, calling Batt the “catalyst” for his hire.
Now, Fitzgerald will work for a new boss. On Monday, Michigan State hired Dan Bartholomae as its newest athletic director. It’s a notable hire of an up-and-comer in the athletics world, one who raised lots of money and with that a few notable banners the past 4½ years at Western Michigan.
If Bartholomae works out at Michigan State, a big reason will be his ability to help Fitzgerald raise banners, too.
After all the turmoil Michigan State went through this summer, Bartholomae’s hire is a stabilizing decision in the short term. But in the long run, stability under Bartholomae depends on football — the breadwinner of college athletics — to get back to its winning ways. That’s the goal of Fitzgerald, whose championship-or-bust ethos is raising the standard of a sleeping Big Ten power. And Bartholomae didn’t come to East Lansing to lose.
“We can achieve extraordinary things at Michigan State University by challenging the status quo and continuously aiming higher,” Bartholomae wrote in an open letter to MSU fans Monday. “Most importantly, we will do it together.”
Together with the fans who’ve watched four straight losing seasons of football, and who stuck through Mel Tucker’s scandalous departure and Jonathan Smith’s lifeless two-year tenure. Together with the donors who now own an investment stake in MSU’s success, as new revenue arm Spartan Ventures gets off the ground.
And, together with Fitzgerald.
Athletic directors like to hire their own football coaches in most cases. And it’s rare for a football coach to outlast the AD that hired him before he even coach a game (Fitzgerald debuts with the Spartans on Sept. 4 against Toledo). In an unlikely circumstance, there’s a lot riding — namely money — on the two newest faces of MSU athletics jelling.
Fitzgerald signed a minimum five-year, $30 million contract in December. MSU also put itself on the hook for at least $32 million to buy out Smith, which will be offset by however much he makes at his next job. MSU will also pay Western Michigan up to $5.1 million in buyout money to hire Bartholomae before it even talks salary. And he’ll take over an athletic department more than $124 million in debt and running a $10 million deficit.
The money says this: These two ought to get comfortable with one another.
FItzgerald was not directly involved in the hire of Bartholomae, but he did describe how to build rapport with new leadership in today’s college football landscape.
“First of all, honesty, transparency, the ability to sit down and have hard conversations and create a plan,” Fitzgerald said. “That means the next 12 months, the next 36 months, the next five years. What is our plan? Where do we see our priorities? It's my job to help that person be better, and whatever that means, however they need me is what I'm going to do.”
Fitzgerald likened the ideal relationship with an AD to those he forges with his assistant coaches. Honesty and transparency rule the day. Though he previously said at Big Ten Media Days that it may take a year to figure out how to really mesh with a new athletic director.
“I get a little busy with this thing called the season here coming up pretty soon,” Fitzgerald quipped. “So a lot of it will be on their plate.”
No matter the time frame, there’s a lot riding on Fitzgerald and Bartholomae to figure out how to help one another. And if football can turn back into a winner, that would solve a lot of issues MSU is running into, namely on the financial side.
Hiring Bartholomae gives the Spartans a jolt. Fitzgerald is happy with the trajectory, too.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the direction of the athletic department in the university,” Fitzgerald said.
So long as he and Bartholomae move in the same direction, Michigan State football could stand to benefit.
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: With new AD in place, MSU’s stability starts with winning football