What would you do if you were J Batt?
Certainly you have heard by now that universities will be allowed to pay their student-athletes directly now as a result of the House Settlement. I am going to oversimplify things here and ignore the fact that there are already legal challenges to the settlement (Title IX issues are getting a lot of the early attention), but each school will have a maximum of $20.5 million dollars that they can distribute to the players on their numerous teams as they see fit. There are no guidelines for how each school divvies up their allowed payouts.
For today’s open thread, we are asking each of you to assume the role of Michigan State Athletic Director and tell us how you would allocate the money. Would you give an equal amount to each student-athlete across all sports? Would you give a higher share to players on the “revenue sports”? Would you give even bigger slices to the stars of the football and men’s basketball teams? Would you not make any payouts and then funnel the money into an offshore bank account for personal use?
Looking forward to hearing what you each come up with.
A couple other quick notes to share with you about MSU sports.
-Nick Sanders has been awarded a scholarship. Sanders, who is entering his fourth year with the basketball team, was given a full athletic scholarship by Tom Izzo on Thursday. Coach made the announcement on the last day of the team’s summer camp. Enjoy the video:
Special announcement to end a great week of camp pic.twitter.com/SWjfmEkZOZ
— Michigan State Men’s Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) June 12, 2025
-The football team has earned a few more commitments this past week. On Tuesday, Cory House announced his intention to come to East Lansing. House, a three-star defensive end out of Memphis, Tennessee, is 6’5” and 240 pounds, and is ranked as the 77th best edge in his class, per the 247 Composite.
The bigger news came late on Thursday with the commitment of Collin Campbell. Campbell is a four-star offensive tackle who stands a towering 6’7” and 280 pounds. The Arizona native is the nation’s 34th-ranked OT and is the highest ranked recruit in MSU’s 2026 class at this point.
And on Friday, another offensive tackle declared for the Spartans. Quinn Buckey of Bakersfield, CA, is a three-star recruit. He is 6’6″ and 270 pounds, and he is 247’s 74th offensive tackle in the class. His father, Jeff, was an offensive lineman in the NFL.
Coach Smith and company will be hosting more recruits this weekend, primarily offensive players.
-In perhaps his first act as new AD, J Batt has given hockey coach Adam Nightingale a five-year extension.
One last thing to share: The Detroit Spartans Annual Golf Outing is coming up. This year’s event will be on July 18 at Fieldstone Golf Club in Auburn Hills. You can register as a solo golfer, twosome, or foursome at this link , or you can simply donate. All proceeds will go to the Detroit Spartans 313 Scholarship Fund.
And speaking of golf, Happy Gilmore 2 will release on Netflix on July 25.