Michigan State is finalizing a deal to hire Western Michigan athletic director Dan Bartholomae as the school’s next athletic director, sources told ESPN.
Bartholomae comes to Michigan State after a strong run at Western Michigan, which won a national title in men’s hockey during his tenure, and the school is also coming off a MAC title in football.
Bartholomae will replace J Batt, who left Michigan State after nearly a year to take the athletic director job at Kentucky. He’d be a front-runner for much of the process, which included interim athletic director Jon Palumbo as an internal candidate.
Bartholomae has been the athletic director at Western Michigan since Jan. 1 2022, arriving there after five years as the executive deputy athletic director at Oregon State.
He fits the hallmarks of the modern athletic director, where fundraising looms as an outsized priority. At Western Michigan in 2025-26, they raised a record $21.8 million.
His accomplishments there include the men’s hockey national title in 2025, the school’s first. He also hired Lance Taylor as the school’s football coach, which culminated with a MAC title in 2025, and Western Michigan looms as the favorite to repeat in 2026.
Bartholomae, 46, enters Michigan State at an interesting time, as new football coach Pat Fitzgerald is set to begin his first season there. It also comes with coach Tom Izzo, who is 71, entering his 31st season there.
The athletic director opening at Michigan State came about because of administrative uncertainty, as president Kevin Guskiewicz was announced as the next president of Clemson in May and then reversed on his decision in July.
In between, Batt left for Kentucky, and Michigan State’s board earned criticism for being difficult. In Guskiewicz’s letter to the faculty announcing his departure, he blasted the board’s “discouraging behavior” that included “the actions of some to abuse their access to privileged and confidential information to mispresent facts.”
Guskiewicz returned to Michigan State, and he led the process to hire Bartholomae.
