Tom Izzo 'disgusted' by 'self-inflicted' losses of MSU president, AD

DETROIT — Tom Izzo is "ashamed." "Disgusted." "Hurt," he said. And it has nothing to do with a performance on the basketball court. Instead, it’s the state of Michigan State leadership.

Izzo sounded off on the loss of Athletic Director J Batt to Kentucky and the impending departure of President Kevin Guskiewicz to Clemson University in a Monday morning interview with reporters. He called the departures “self-inflicted,” and he can’t stand what is happening to the university he’s given 31 years as a head basketball coach.

“I’ve had it. This is self-inflicted,” Izzo said. “We just lost the best president that may have ever been here, maybe. One of the best. And there are other dominoes that get affected when things go wrong like that.

“I’m very upset about it. And I’m sick of it. And I’ll go into why when I decide to say something in the near future, how’s that?”

Izzo said he’s keeping his full comments withheld as the situation unfolds, but he did give marching orders to Michigan State alumni who are watching the scene unfold. He may only be a stakeholder, but he wants to see alumni in action.

“If there’s ever a time that we need to rally together, it’s now. And that’s all 600,000,” Izzo said. “... I’m gonna ask the alums to stand up, because what happened with our president is ridiculous. And he said it, we know the reasons, and I’m ashamed and disgusted. Hurt. But we’ll see what the Spartan Nation feels. Spartan Nation better stand up. All 600,000 of them.”

Guskiewicz blasted three trustees — Rema Vassar, D-Detroit; Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing; and Mike Balow, R-Plymouth — as he announced his impending departure to Clemson on May 27.

“While I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished these past two-plus years, I have always said that your health, family and faith must come first above all else,” Guskiewicz wrote in a letter May 27. “The ongoing and continuous nature of the aforementioned actions has created an unsustainable situation. So after thoughtful reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave Michigan State University and accept an opportunity to lead Clemson University as its next president.”

There is no timeline for Guskiewicz’s departure, though he did announce Monday that he will help name an interim athletic director this week.

“There’s people way above where I’m at that gotta get straightened out what their fiduciary responsibility is,” Izzo said. “I thought it was to move this university forward. Like Jud told me, you’ll never be bigger than the program. There’ll be no president, trustee, AD or basketball coach bigger than the university. I’ve always looked at my goal, I don’t just care about basketball. I care about athletics. I care about this university. And that’s what we’re supposed to do. I thought. That’s been challenged a little bit.”

Batt, however, is gone for Kentucky at a pivotal moment. He made a number of changes in his first year, hiring football coach Pat Fitzgerald, starting a $1 billion fundraising campaign in FOR SPARTA, securing a $401 million commitment from megadonors Greg and Dawn Williams and launching a $500 million renovation plan for Spartan Stadium. The day he left for Kentucky, Monday, MSU announced a 10-year jersey patch sponsorship with MSUFCU in the range of $40 million.

Batt’s biggest project was the creation of third-party revenue arm Spartan Ventures, with non-profit Spartan Athletic Foundation and for-profit Spartan Media Ventures. Spartan Ventures revenues make up the bulk of the projected athletics revenues for fiscal year 2027 at more than $114.7 million. Spartan Ventures was the brainchild of Guskiewicz and Batt, though it is expected to be on target for a July 1 launch despite their departures, according to MSU Board chair Brianna Scott. Jon Palumbo, executive deputy AD and CEO of Spartan Ventures, reiterated Monday that Spartan Ventures is moving on as previously planned despite the leadership change.

Just who takes over MSU athletics is unknown at the moment, but Izzo is still calling on alumni to band together in the aftermath of two major departures.

“I think Michigan State people have to take ownership of their university. We have as many living alums as any university in the country probably,” Izzo said. “Well, we gotta speak up. We gotta speak up. We gotta band together. I think it’s really important in times of need that you band together. And we gotta make sure our people — that’s why I’ve always been such a big proponent of either having our people or getting our kind of people, same thing we do in recruiting. To me, our president was the perfect fit for here. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t fit somewhere else. I think he was a perfect fit.”

In Izzo’s tenure as basketball coach since 1995, he has worked with seven different athletic directors, eight presidents and nine football coaches, counting interims. Such turnover has created eras of instability, including the present. Since 2022, Michigan State will hire its third athletic director and second full-time president.

In the meantime, Izzo is holding out some modicum of hope as Guskiewicz prepares to leave.

"Until he’s gone, I always have hope," Izzo said. "I’d give my right arm, he could have my salary, I’d do whatever. I just think he’s … look where this place has gone in two years. I mean, we all know where we were. We were in the ashes. Like the phoenix, we rose out of the ashes. I really believe that. I know it. I live it every day. I’m here every day. Other people come and go, I’ve been here. I know what we’ve done. I know what he’s done. It’s been, to me, phenomenal. When you’re a leader, you’re always gonna tick off people. You think all my players like me? You think all the parents of my players like me? That’s just the way it is."

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