Alan Haller is out as athletic director at Michigan State, after less than four years at the helm. Mike Valenti says good riddance: "Maybe if you cared less about Olympic sports and more about raising money for football, you’d have a job. … MSU football is completely irrelevant, and it’s on your desk, Alan."
The football team is coming off its third straight losing season. It went 5-7 in its first season under Jonathan Smith, the biggest hire of Haller's tenure. Haller also signed former head coach Mel Tucker to a 10-year, $95 million extension at the outset of his tenure, a move that blew up in Michigan State's face.
Amid reports that Texas is prepared to spend up to $40 million on its football roster next season, "MSU is handing out cupcakes for NIL," says Valenti. ... "Here’s my question, and I’m being totally sincere. No smarm: Is MSU football even savable?"
To those that say Michigan State doesn't have the donor base to compete with the top-revenue athletic departments/football programs in the country, or even in the Big Ten, Valenti says he's sick of "hearing this Little Sisters of the Poor crap from Spartans. How many billionaires do we have who are graduates? And why do none invest heavily in football?"
That will be the challenge for Haller's replacement. Valenti says the Spartans "can spend their way to success" if they're willing: "You’re top 15 in revenue, you’re top 15 in attendance. There’s a disconnect here for me." No, they don't need to spend $40 million on a football team like Texas.
"But can I get to $25 million?" asks Valenti.
"The whole point is, if everyone is spending now and we got more billionaires than most schools have, how do we not get any of them to spend on football? ... I'm tired of them being such a Mickey Mouse lemonade stand. Get it right."