Finley: MSU Board volunteers to stay in the dark

Take wealthy, sports obsessed donors, a university desperate for cash to compete for top talent, student-athletes who are quickly learning how to play today's mega bucks recruiting game and, "What could possibly go wrong?" asks Mike Balow, a Michigan State University trustee.

Balow sees the potential for another costly and embarrassing scandal ahead for MSU if it doesn't carefully craft a strategy for providing maximum oversight of the new private entity the school spun off to share control of its athletic department.

Trustee Mike Balow is shown during the Michigan State University Board of Trustees meeting, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, in East Lansing.

A majority of his fellow trustees, however, want to see and hear nothing about how Spartan Media Ventures was created and how it will operate. The board recently voted 5-3 against Balow's resolution to subject the spin-off to the state's Freedom of Information Act and scrap the requirement that trustees sign a non-disclosure agreement before viewing any information about the venture.

"They are willingly covering their eyes and ears and saying we trust the administration and we don’t need oversight authority," says Balow, who was joined in support of the resolution by trustees Dennis Denno and Rema Vassar.

Spartan Media Ventures was spun out of Spartan Ventures, a university initiative approved by the board last fall to assure MSU remains at the top of college sports in the challenging transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness era.

READ: Finley: MSU sports deal stinks to high heaven

While Spartan Ventures is an arm of the university and subject to board authority, Spartan Media Ventures was set up by the MSU administration as a private company outside of the board's reach. That arrangement was made without a vote of the trustees. And though it was handed a big chunk of MSU equity, it has declared itself not subject to FOIA or open meetings laws.

SMV immediately sold an 11% stake in MSU athletics to boosters Greg and Dawn Williams for $100 million. That deal was also made without board approval, and trustees have been told they can't see details without signing a non-disclosure agreement that keeps them from sharing information, no matter how concerning, with the voters who elected them.