Exploring WMU's Bartholomae as Potential MSU AD Candidate

One pretty sensible external candidate for Michigan State's open athletic director job currently resides in Kalamazoo.

Western Michigan AD Dan Bartholomae has often been suggested as someone MSU could consider as its next athletic director. There are a few reasons for that.

Bartholomae's Buyout From WMU

One of the big hurdles for the Spartans, if they were to target Bartholomae, would be his buyout from the Broncos. WMU extended him through June 2031 last August. Bartholomae's buyout is reportedly $5 million, which would be quite high for an athletic director hire from a Group of Six school.

That shouldn't be too much of a problem for Michigan State, though. The Spartans are set to get $3.95 million in buyout money from Kentucky after the Wildcats hired J Batt away from MSU.

University of Kentucky athletics director J Batt speaks with members of the media during an interview session in Lexington, Ky., on June 16, 2026. Batt was introduced this week as the successor to retiring athletics director Mitch Barnhart. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Batt's original figure was $5 million, but that figure was set to drop to $2.5 million when president Kevin Guskiewicz originally accepted a job at Clemson. That particular clause never actually came into effect, but the two sides were still able to negotiate towards the middle because of the unusual nature of the situation. Batt probably doesn't really go searching around if Guskiewicz hadn't taken the Clemson job in the first place.

If MSU were to take every penny it's getting from Kentucky and put it towards getting Bartholomae, it would only need to find an additional $1.05 million. That is a very reasonable number. Michigan State forked over a little more than $2 million to Georgia Tech to pay for Batt's buyout there last year.

Bartholomae's Resume at WMU

Michigan State, Western Michiga — Michigan State defensive back Malik Spencer (43) tackles Western Michigan wide receiver Baylin Brooks (82) during the second half at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Friday, August 29, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

One of the first things Guskiewicz and Michigan State must look for in any candidate is their track record with football. Bartholomae wasn't around Kalamazoo long before he made a change at the head coach position there. He opted to fire Tim Lester after a 5-7 season in 2022 and replaced him with Lance Taylor.

Western Michigan was Taylor's first head-coaching opportunity, so it's not a hire everybody can say they would've made. It hasn't taken long to work out. Taylor went 4-8 in his first year in Kalamazoo and then 6-7 in Year 2, but the Broncos broke through last season. WMU finished out at 10-4 and won its first MAC title since 2016, when it had current Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck.

Fundraising History

WMU — Buster Bronco tries to fire up the crowd as Western Michigan hosted Miami (Ohio) on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019 at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The big thing these days is the ability to fundraise and make an athletic department money, though. This is another place where Bartholomae has excelled during his time at Western Michigan.

WMU just announced another big year for fundraising last week. The Broncos reported a record $21.8 million in donations during FY26, with more than 3,800 unique donors.

Aug 30, 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; General view of the MAC Conference logo on a Western Michigan Broncos helmet during warmups prior to the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

To put it in additional perspective, Western Michigan says that overall financial support for the athletic department has increased by 473% since Bartholomae arrived in 2022, and the number of unique donors has slightly more than doubled.

The goals would certainly shift for Bartholomae if he were to get the Michigan State job, but he would also get plenty of resources. He's proven that he can get the financial arm of even a mid-major Division I school going, so it would be interesting to see how he'd do at a Big Ten school for sure.

Other Past Stops for Bartholomae

Michigan State mascot "Sparty" looks on during a game against Louisville during the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the KeyBank Center on Saturday, March 21, 2026. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

Interestingly, Bartholomae actually has a pretty direct connection to former MSU football head coach Jonathan Smith, who got fired by Batt at Michigan State the day after the 2025 season finale. Bartholomae was the executive deputy AD and COO at Oregon State before becoming the AD at Western Michigan, a position that overlapped with Smith's tenure with the Beavers.

"Dan was vitally important to Oregon State football and the entire OSU athletic department during his time here," Smith said about Bartholomae on the NCHC's (WMU's hockey conference) profile of Bartholomae. "His ability to understand the big picture and at the same time work closely with so many on the day-to-day makes him more than ready to lead an entire athletic department."

Bartholomae's time at Oregon State spanned from 2017 to 2022. Smith's first season as the head coach at OSU was in 2018. Before that, Bartholomae worked at Pitt for more than a decade, focusing a lot on the school's compliance department and finishing his time there as the deputy athletic director responsible for internal affairs.

It's a pretty good all-around profile. Western Michigan has enjoyed significant on-field and financial success and has also broken program records in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate metric. The Michigan State job would be a big step up, but Bartholomae seems like someone ready for it when the opportunity arises.

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