Michigan State is losing one of the key people behind its athletic department reset.
Jon Palumbo, who had been serving as MSU’s former interim athletic director and most recently as Spartan Ventures CEO, is headed to Kentucky. The University of Kentucky announced Tuesday morning that it hired Palumbo as Executive Deputy Athletics Director and Deputy CEO of Champions Blue, LLC - a role that closely mirrors what he was doing in East Lansing.
MSU confirmed the move and said Eric Reinke will step in as interim Spartan Ventures CEO. Reinke had been Spartan Ventures’ CBO. Athletic director Dan Bartholomae and deputy AD Jen Smith will also temporarily absorb some of Palumbo’s former duties.
The move reunites Palumbo with former Michigan State athletic director J Batt. Kentucky will be the third school where Palumbo has worked as Batt’s No.
- The pair were together at Georgia Tech before both later landed at MSU.
Palumbo’s exit had been expected since news broke in June that he was leaving for the Wildcats. He remained on campus for a while after that because his MSU contract included a clause that would have cut his buyout in half if Kevin Guskiewicz, who had accepted the presidency at Clemson, were no longer the president. That clause was never triggered after Guskiewicz changed his mind.
Michigan State had reasons to want Palumbo to stay. Bartholomae praised him during his introductory press conference a few weeks ago, which looked like a clear effort to keep him in the fold. Palumbo was also in attendance for Michigan State football’s season opener against Toledo on Friday, but the Spartans and their new AD still couldn’t hold on to him.
Now Bartholomae has to replace a trusted lieutenant and figure out who will take over the kind of operational work Palumbo handled. He was widely viewed as the person most responsible for building Spartan Ventures, and his departure leaves a real hole.
There’s also a bigger picture here. Palumbo had a successful run as an AD at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and has also handled football or basketball administration roles at several larger programs. He looked like a legitimate candidate for the permanent AD job at Michigan State, but Bartholomae came in with the stronger résumé and more experience.
For MSU, the loss is more than just a staffing change. It removes a major piece of the structure Bartholomae inherited, and what he does next will go a long way toward shaping the early part of his tenure.
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