Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said new Michigan State athletic director J Batt 'has done a great job,' and Tom Izzo praises both leaders
ROSEMONT, Ill. – Even before he took over as Michigan State’s athletic director, J Batt began to forge a relationship with Tony Petitti.
The Big Ten commissioner got to know Batt initially as one of 10 members of the NCAA’s House Settlement Implementation Committee, which Batt joined in March as the athletic director at Georgia Tech. He and Petitti now are part of the leaders guiding the Big Ten into future of college sports as the revenue sharing and name, image and likeness era continues to evolve.
“J has done a great job. He’s already contributing a lot,” Petitti said Thursday, Oct. 9, at Big Ten basketball media day. “Given so much that’s going on, our athletic directors meet on a weekly basis and J has been participating. Obviously, he’s very experienced coming from Tech, so he’s really well regarded in the room.”
Petitti also spent a chunk of time catching up with Tom Izzo on Thursday afternoon before the Basketball Hall of Fame coach’s interview with Big Ten Network, exchanging hugs as they departed. Petitti, a former Major League Baseball and television executive, took over as commissioner in May 2023 after the departure of Kevin Warren, who ran the league from 2020-23 after the retirement of longtime leader Jim Delany.
Izzo pointed to the visionary ideas Delany had during his 21-year tenure from 1989-2020 – from the Big Ten basketball tournament to the creation of the Big Ten Network – and said he feels Petitti has a similar approach to how Delany “was way ahead of his time.”
“Tony and Jim are good friends, and they talk. But Tony’s got his work cut out, too,” Izzo said Thursday. “I mean he got this job in the middle of this different way of doing things, and there’s a lot of work to it. And every time you turn around, nothing works because somebody’s suing you, which I think is ridiculous. …
“But I think Tony’s gonna be good. I think he’s really good because he talks to us. He let's us know what’s going on. And I think that’s a big, big, big thing.”
Petitti and Batt also are working to navigate the road that’s being forged by the new College Sports Commission, the new overseeing body that was created in preparation for the June settlement of the House v. NCAA federal lawsuit and now governs NIL deals and other aspects of revenue sharing and athletic benefits.
Petitti said took part in a 90-minute call before the Big Ten hoops meetings with Bryan Seeley, the new CSC chief executive officer, and other conference leaders. While there have been issues with the NIL Go process of approving deals for athletes, Petitti said the big thing is for students and coaches to begin understanding the new rules.
“I think people have to just respect the process,” Petitti said. “Look, I know there’s been some things that have been reported about the speed of deals and how things get cleared.
"But part of this is we want these deals to be scrutinized. All of the participants in the system want deals to be fair. So that takes some time, and we’re doing it for the first time. … It’s only gonna improve over time.”
MSU hired Batt in June to replace Alan Haller, who was dismissed as athletic director a month earlier after 3 1/2 years leading his alma mater. Izzo also sang the praises of his new boss.
“I really like J. And it’s not like any other AD we had wasn’t good. It’s the landscape has changed, and so people in that position now are so different than they used to be,” Izzo said. “When I came up, the ex-football coach was always the athletic director at the high school and some colleges. And then they went to (businessmen) side of it, which I didn’t think worked so good, either. Because yeah you have the business part of it but you’ve never been an athlete.
“J has won a national championship as a soccer player (at Virginia). He’s worked at places like Alabama, where football is big, because football is important. And he’s been great. He’s a great fundraiser, and he has great people skills. So he gets out and talks to people, which I think is the name of the game now for coaches and administrators.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tony Petitti: Michigan State's J Batt doing 'great job' as new AD
Category: General Sports
