Almost one full month after J Batt accepted the Kentucky athletic director job, Michigan State has named his interim, effectively ending his one-year tenure in East Lansing.
According to a press release from Michigan State, Batt’s understudy, Jon Palumbo, who served as the executive deputy athletics director and chief operating officer while also acting as the CEO of Spartan Ventures, is assuming the role of interim athletic director.
This move was a long time coming, but it’s effective immediately now that the buyout situation with Batt has been sorted out. The university has negotiated a buyout with Kentucky for Batt and now both sides can officially move on. He had been hanging around for a little too long, even after he told Kentucky that he was locked in and had no intention of going back on his word.
Palumbo is the right hire as interim and not exactly a huge surprise because he was Batt’s right-hand man and left his fingerprints all over the athletic department.
Batt was hired a little over a year ago and Palumbo joined him in June of 2025 after holding the same role at Georgia Tech under the now-former athletic director. He was credited for helping turn around the football program at Georgia Tech and he was also considered a rising star in the realm of athletic directors. Many Michigan State fans were hoping that Kevin Guskiewicz would name Palumbo the next athletic director, and I do feel like there’s a decent chance that the interim tag comes off at some point.
Palumbo was also partially responsible for bringing in Pat Fitzgerald as the new football coach, so if all goes well this fall, he could see that interim tag comes off rather quickly.
Guskiewicz did say in the press release that he’s going to evaluate options both externally and internally to fill the role permanently, and I believe that the internal option would be Palumbo. He’s at least going to get a real shot to earn the permanent position but he’ll have to prove a lot over the next few weeks to months.
In my opinion, this is a great first move by Guskiewicz following his return.
Jon Palumbo needs to prove himself once again
The former Georgia Tech deputy athletics director and chief operating officer had to prove himself during his three years in Atlanta after serving as Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s athletic director from 2018-2022 where he apparently led the athletic department to unprecedented success.
He had to prove himself after getting hired by Batt at Georgia Tech and he followed his boss to East Lansing where he helped Michigan State raise some money and launch Spartan Ventures.
Helping identify Fitzgerald as the next football coach while launching a program that could do wonders for Michigan State’s NIL and fundraising should be a good start to his quest to be named full-time athletic director.
Michigan State is in good hands with Palumbo and although he needs to prove himself once again, I think he’s willing and capable. Guskiewicz couldn’t ask for a better “interim” athletic director.
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