Michigan State is hiring Western Michigan athletic director Dan Bartholomae to run its own athletic department, a move that will make him the replacement for J Batt at MSU. Jon Palumbo had been serving as interim athletic director since July 10, but the search now appears headed toward a direct handoff from one Mid-American Conference administrator to another Big Ten program.
The timing matters because the change comes after Batt left East Lansing for Kentucky, leaving MSU to sort out its leadership gap while Bartholomae’s name had already been circulating as a likely candidate. Monday morning brought the clearest sign yet that the search had landed on him, and the next step is the formal announcement or finalization that will turn the reported hire into the job itself.
Bartholomae’s rise at Western Michigan gives the move its weight. He took over the athletic department in January 2022, fired Tim Lester after a 5-7 season that year, then hired Lance Taylor with no previous head coaching experience after just one season as an offensive coordinator. Taylor later delivered a MAC championship in Year 3, and Bartholomae extended him through 2030 in December, a bet that showed how willing he was to make and then stick with a decision.
That record sits beside another one: Western Michigan said its FY26 fundraising topped $21.8 million from 3,800 unique donors, a 473% increase in donations since Bartholomae arrived. Even so, the mood around the program has not been shaped by contributions alone. Fans care more about wins than donation totals, and that gap helps explain why an administrator praised for fundraising can still leave with the football program and the bigger competitive picture under scrutiny.
The move also carries a real financial cost. Michigan State would owe Western Michigan a buyout in the range of $5 million, but most of that figure is offset by the $3.95 million MSU is getting from Kentucky for Batt. That means the leadership change is not just a personnel swap. It is a transaction, one that links the two schools through the same departure and gives Michigan State a clearer path to complete the hire once the paperwork catches up with the reporting.
