Michigan State athletics is changing its name, image and likeness approach.
The school announced the hiring Wednesday of Jon Dykema, pulling Tom Izzo’s former student manager away from the Detroit Lions to a newly created position overseeing the Spartans’ NIL contracts, commercial partnerships and sponsorships, media rights and employee contracts. The Grand Rapids native has served as the director of football compliance/lead football counsel for the Lions the past 14 years, a job in which he navigated and oversaw contracts and salary cap fits.
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“I’m thrilled to be returning to the place where my career in athletics administration began,” Dykema, who was a student manager for the 2000 hoops national title team before graduating in 2003, said in a release Wednesday. “I’m very excited to start working with the coaches, staff and student-athletes across multiple sports at Michigan State, especially coach Izzo, who has been a big supporter of mine since I was a student manager for the basketball program.”
Dykema’s official title at MSU will be executive senior associate athletic director/student-athlete management and assistant general counsel. He will report to athletic director Alan Haller as well as the school’s Office of General Counsel.
“With the constant evolution in college athletics and revenue sharing on the horizon, this is an incredibly important hire for Michigan State athletics,” Haller said in a statement. “Jon brings a wealth of experience working with contracts and the salary cap at the NFL level, where he has played an important role behind the scenes in the Detroit Lions’ success. He will be a great resource to Spartan coaches and administrators as we navigate our new landscape.”
Dykema has been with the Lions’ legal team since 2011. He also spent time in college athletics with four years at Utah and a semester at Akron, where he received both his law degree and MBA.