Two hours up the road
The Spartans did not have to look far. Michigan State is finalizing the hire of Dan Bartholomae as athletic director, per multiple reports Monday, pulling him from Western Michigan where he has run the department since June 2022.
The chair has been empty since July 28, when J Batt left East Lansing for the same job at Kentucky. Jon Palumbo has been holding it on an interim basis. Three weeks later the search ends in Kalamazoo, at a program that operates on a fraction of the Big Ten budget.
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A hockey title, a football title, and a donor list
His Western Michigan résumé fits in three lines. A national hockey championship in 2025. A football conference title the same year. Fundraising records on top of both.
That third line is the one Michigan State cared about. College athletics now runs on private money, and an AD who can move donors is worth more than one who can hire coaches. Bartholomae has done both in the same twelve months.
Before Kalamazoo he spent five years as an assistant AD at Oregon State, a career built almost entirely out of the spotlight. He is about to find out what the other version looks like.
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