Dan Bartholomae leaves Western Michigan better than he found it
In nearly five years running the Broncos' athletic department, Bartholomae consistently pushed WMU to a better place in college athletics.
Kalamazoo — Even in leaving, athletic director Dan Bartholomae is doing Western Michigan athletics a solid. Actually, $5.1 million worth of them.
As was reported on Monday morning and announced by the afternoon, Bartholomae is heading a short ways northeast to East Lansing, taking over the vacant athletic director job at Michigan State after nearly five years at the helm of Western Michigan athletics.
“Throughout my career, I have been drawn to institutions that believe athletics can elevate a university and unite a community,” Bartholomae said in a release announcing his hire at MSU.
In those 1689 days that Bartholomae ran the show in Kalamazoo, it's hard to argue he didn’t consistently raise the bar for the Broncos and, in his words, try to elevate a university and community through athletics.
Since Bartholomae took over on Jan 1, 2022, the school has won a national championship in hockey and 37 conference titles across a number of sports, highlighted by the football program winning 10 games and a MAC championship in 2025. Bartholomae followed that up by locking up head football coach Lance Taylor with a contract extension. He’d similarly been able to retain hockey head coach Pat Ferschweiler. The Broncos are close to finishing a new hockey and basketball arena in downtown Kalamazoo, a $500-million-plus project Bartholomae spearheaded the fundraising for. He led the Broncos to a record $21.8 million in athletic fundraising while generally running a department that found good financial health.
His success ultimately cost Western Michigan a beloved athletic director, but not before he left his mark for the better.
“I think that that's what great leaders do,” WMU football coach Lance Taylor said to Mitten Football in June. “They lead by example and they lead through their actions and that's what Dan is all about.”
Since he signed a new contract last year, Western Michigan will be owed a cool $5.1 million as a buyout — a figure Michigan State will happily pay, largely covered by the nearly $4 million the Spartans got from previous AD J Batt leaving for Kentucky. Even Bartholomae’s exit has some benefits.
Bartholomae’s first day at Michigan State will be Aug. 31, per MSU’s release.
“I am indebted to so many who welcomed my family and me, and served as sources of support, counsel and encouragement. I am proud of the vision we created and achieved together. I am most proud that a strong foundation has been built — with the support of amazing community leaders — and will thrive into a dynamic future. It is bittersweet, but I am incredibly grateful for the time and our friendships in Kalamazoo. There are more championships to come in many forms, and we will be celebrating with you all,” Bartholomae said in a release from WMU announcing his departure.
WMU is elevating deputy AD Elaine Russell into the interim role, according to a release. She’s held that role since last May and been with the Western Michigan athletic department since 2022, when she began as an associate AD for external operations.
WMU will begin a national search to find a full-time replacement.
“Elaine has my full confidence to keep our momentum strong,” WMU president Dr. Russ Kavalhuna said in the release.
It’s worth considering the situation Bartholomae walked into at the start of 2022. Things were far from dire, but they certainly weren’t humming in Kalamazoo, either. The football team, led by Tim Lester, had stagnated and regressed that season. A successful-but-unremarkable hockey program was starting Year 1 under Ferschweiler. The general departmental financial situation was not great.
There was work to be done, but Bartholomae also didn’t come with promises of quick fixes or massive overhauls.
“My promise to our coaches and to our team is I'm gonna ask you to get a little bit better every single year, and in turn, we're gonna deliver and get a little bit better for you every single year,” Bartholomae said in an interview with Mitten Football in July.
The on-field results are hard to quibble with. Hockey raised its profile and delivered a national championship to WMU, followed up by football winning the MAC with a coach Bartholomae hired.
And reflecting on his decision to come to Kalamazoo, Taylor said Bartholomae’s presence helped sway him.
“He spoke of his vision and where he wanted to take the athletic department,” Taylor said to Mitten Football in June. “You know, it very much aligned with what I wanted to do from a football standpoint and who I wanted to be a teammate with. And I think that was a huge piece.”
Andrew Graham
Bartholomae has said his desire is to foster a collaborative and collegial head coaching roster, where that group can turn inward for help and support. Frequently Bartholomae and Taylor have spoken about being great “teammates.”
“My job is to serve our coaches and then create a culture and atmosphere where that can work,” Bartholomae said.
It was a historic combination of success, football and ice hockey winning at those respective levels in 2025, and plenty of other Bronco teams, like women’s soccer or the dance team, also took home titles.
It led to Bartholomae and the Broncos to declare Kalamazoo is the City of Champions, a rallying cry to maximize fundraising.
And fundraising might be where Bartholomae shines best. He led WMU to a record $21.8 million in fundraising for athletics in the past year, and has overseen numerous initiatives and projects to improve WMU athletics. A brand new football weight room, funded largely by Stafford-Smith, just opened, and Stafford-Smith also pays for field sponsorship at Waldo Stadium. The men’s ice hockey team will play an outdoor game in January at Waldo Stadium, facing Michigan.
The magnum opus of Bartholomae’s tenure in Kalamazoo is still being built, the massive mixed-use arena and venue space downtown that will house the ice hockey team — with a separate practice ice sheet — along with men’s and women’s basketball, plus serve as a space to host concerts and the like. The Kalamazoo Events Center, reported to cost $515 million, will also be the home for the Kalamazoo Wings, a local minor league hockey team.
That project is scheduled to be completed next year and open for the various teams to compete there in 2027-28 and onward.
The only question is whether or not the last coaching hire Bartholomae made at Western Michigan, men’s basketball head coach Kahil Fennell, pans out. He’ll certainly have the facilities and investment to make it happen.
Because in nearly five years in Kalamazoo and at Western Michigan, Bartholomae left it better than he found it.
