EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — J Batt said Michigan State has a top-10 athletic department in the country.

The school’s next athletic director made it clear that the football program must lead the way to make his statement ring true.

The Spartans have been shaky in recent years in the sport that pays the bills in college athletics, losing seven games last year in coach Jonathan Smith’s debut season.

“It comes down to resources and across the board, we will provide him and his staff with resources,” Batt said Wednesday when he was formally introduced.

Batt left Georgia Tech, where he was its athletic director since the fall of 2022, to take on the challenge of raising money and turning around a football program in the highly competitive Big Ten.

The university’s Board of Trustees, which ap

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