5 Defining Moments for Michigan State Athletics in 2025
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It's been an interesting 365 days in East Lansing.
With 2026 now here, let's kick it off by looking back on the year just left behind. In no particular order, here are the five defining moments for Michigan State athletics.
Basketball Reaches Big Ten Mountaintop
The end of the 2025 Big Ten basketball season featured a run that does not deserve to be forgotten anytime soon. After MSU suffered a pretty inexplicable loss to Indiana at home, the team's third loss in four games, the Spartans finished on a seven-game win streak for the ages.
Michigan State took down five ranked opponents during those seven games to finish 17-3 against Big Ten competition. That was enough to win the conference outright by three games and be the program's first outright title since 2018. It was Tom Izzo's 11th regular season championship for his 30th season as MSU's head coach.
Firing of Jonathan Smith, Hiring of Pat Fitzgerald
A change at the top of the football program is always a big deal. After a 4-8 campaign in 2025, the fourth consecutive losing season for MSU, the Spartans decided to fire Jonathan Smith after only two years on the job. He was swiftly replaced by Pat Fitzgerald, the former longtime head coach at Northwestern.
The beginning of 2026 will be critical for Michigan State's hopes of getting back to the level it wants to be at next fall. More than 30 players from this year's roster are leaving the team via the transfer portal, and that total does not even include outgoing seniors.
Firing of Alan Haller, Hiring of J Batt
It's also always a huge deal when there is a change at the very top of the athletic department. Alan Haller was ousted from his role as athletic director in May. Michigan State then got J Batt, previously at Georgia Tech, to replace him in June.
Batt has made several big decisions in his first handful of months on the job, including firing Smith and picking Fitzgerald. There have been some other headlines from his tenure.
"For Sparta" Launched, $401M Donation
The week following Fitzgerald's hiring was also quite eventful. The second-biggest headline that week was that Michigan State was accepting a $401,000,000 donation from Greg and Dawn Williams, one of the largest athletics donations in history. Greg is the CEO of insurance company Acrisure.
This came a few days after MSU launched "For Sparta," which aims to renovate Spartan Stadium, the Breslin Center, and other parts of campus in the future and has a fundraising goal of $1 billion. Michigan State claimed it already had $250 million when it launched the campaign, and then added $290 million from the Williamses' donation. Another $100 million went to "Spartan Ventures," and the rest went to some other academic programs.
Hockey Wins Big Ten Again
Michigan State hockey won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles for the second consecutive season in 2025. The Spartans had to accept a split with Minnesota for the regular season crown, but got the conference tourney's top seed.
They got past Notre Dame and Ohio State to win the Big Ten tournament. The championship game against the Buckeyes went to double overtime, but Hobey Baker Award (college hockey's Heisman) Isaac Howard scored the winner and got MSU another championship.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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