Izzo Donates $1 Million to MSU Football Program

Submitted by UMAmaizinBlue on

Izzo and his wife, Lupe, have donated $1 million to the MSU AD, most of which will go towards the football scholarship program. This is a pretty solid thing for Izzo to do, obviously, and it appears as if he's trying to keep the football program and the hype around it going by matching it with monetary support. Link?

Link:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/35501/izzo-shows-love-for-msu-football-with-gift

P.S. - Everything in the article is fluff (and Izzo earned it, I guess), but this one still made me shake my head:

"Supporting the football team was an easy decision," Izzo said in a prepared statement. "Coach [Mark] Dantonio is a man of character, building a championship program."

Everything was good until that whole "man of character" bit, but that's just my opinion. And of course, Beat Sparty!

trueblueintexas

October 11th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^

I don't have anything against Izzo, but a little perspective: Joe Paterno and his wife helped build a new library at Penn State.  Bobby Knight did a similar thing at Indiana.  These are examples of coaches giving back to their school.  I guess you shouldn't expect as much from Michigan State, but really??? I mean, come on. Izzo donating to Dantonio?  Maybe he should have donated $1 mil to his own program based on last years performance.

Baldino

October 11th, 2011 at 12:43 AM ^

1 million to keep your dreams alive.

60 thousand for the ugliest uniforms in sports.

230 for a tattoo you regret for the rest of your life.

A beating by your big brother priceless....

 

 

readyourguard

October 11th, 2011 at 8:18 AM ^

If the money actually came out of Izzo's bank account and wasn't secretly reimbursed by the AD, I'd have nothing but good things to say about the gesture.   But scratch the surface, and it's a little odd that he would donate that kind of money to the football program.  Why not the women's field hockey team or the men's gymnastics team?  Why donate to the most profitable sports program the school has?  In my opinion, the whole things smells of PR/Marketing.

Raback Omaba

October 11th, 2011 at 9:20 AM ^

While I think its certainly odd for Izzo to donate to the school' most profitable athletic program over other (in my mind) more deserving ventures, I can't and will not criticize a man for doing what he wants with his money. There are much worse things that Izzo can do with $1mm and by all intents and purposes Izzo has shown to be a generally classy guy over the past. Hvaing said that, this is merely a PR/Marketing ploy to garner additional donations to the athletic department. The timing of it (during Michigan week and after Dantonio's "Spartan for Life" contract) and the way it was announced screams "hey MSU alumni, write some checks baby!" Nothing wrong with that.....I'm sure Dave Brandon is well aware of similar ways to raise money for our AD. I don't think this makes Izzo "an unbelievable human being" (as I read on an msu blog), however I wouldn't necessarily hate the player....