J Batt already sees why Big Blue Nation is Kentucky’s biggest advantage

Growing up in ACC country and playing soccer at the University of North Carolina, J Batt was familiar with Kentucky’s reputation, especially in basketball; however, it took a trip to Nashville during his time with the University of Alabama (2017-22) to truly appreciate Big Blue Nation. “I was in Nashville for an SEC Tournament and was with a different team, lost early, and all of a sudden, out of everywhere, Big Blue Nation just showed up and took over the entire town,” Batt said on KSR this morning. “That’s what I know of BBN, is the incredible passion, the fanbase, and that permeates all of college sports. That’s known across college sports. So growing up in a college town, in an ACC town, Kentucky basketball and the fanbase that goes with it, the football, all of it is known.” Now Kentucky’s athletic director, Batt is part of Big Blue Nation. When he arrived at the Joe Craft Center on Tuesday for his first day of work, Batt was surprised to see a stack of letters on his desk from Kentucky fans wishing him well. Last night, he attended his first UK Athletics event, La Familia’s TBT semifinal game at Historic Memorial Coliseum. Seeing that many people show up for an alumni basketball game in July was another eye-opener. “Well, I’ll tell you what, I got to experience a little bit last night, and we were talking about it off air. But it’s incredible, BBN showing up in July for basketball. 3,500 people. Loud, intense. La Familia gets a W. Big one on Sunday. But that just speaks to the power of and the importance of BBN. It’s awesome.” When he took the job in June, Batt said that Big Blue Nation was a differentiator, that the passion of the fanbase can help Kentucky stay competitive in the NIL/revenue-sharing era. He knows a thing or two about revenue. After working his way up to executive deputy director at Alabama, Batt left Tuscaloosa in 2022 to take the athletic director role at Georgia Tech. During his final year with the Rambling Wreck, the university was one of only nine schools nationally that earned postseason berths in football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball. They also broke their fundraising goals by more than 40%. In just one year as Michigan State’s AD, Batt helped secure more than a $400 million commitment, the largest single gift in college sports — and established Spartan Ventures, a nonprofit similar to Champions Blue LLC, which he now oversees at Kentucky. Batt believes Kentucky can win big in all sports, especially football, and he is banking on BBN buying in — and that doesn’t necessarily mean donations to BBN United or season tickets. “I want everybody in Big Blue Nation to know emphatically, directly from me, that whether they come and they buy one ticket to one game a year, whether they never make it to Rupp [Arena] or Kroger [Field] or Memorial [Coliseum], they matter because when I said earlier that the Big Blue Nation is our Delta, that might be that we have folks that step up and give dollars or buy new premium seats or buy new season tickets or add one more preseason ticket, but doing a little bit more for Kentucky athletics. That’s all that matters.” “I look forward to spending more time with you guys and helping define, hey, what does that mean? How can I help if I’m here? How do I get that one more notch up? Big Blue Nation is the Delta.” In his interview with Matt Jones last month, Batt joked that fans will see him so often they’ll get tired of him. He’s only been on the job for a few days, but so far, he’s following up on that promise. When he wasn’t watching last night’s game alongside Joe and Kelly Craft, two of the school’s biggest donors, he was out in the concourse greeting fans. He did it again today at Kroger Field, shaking hands with every fan that showed up to see the show and get a free Blizzard for Dairy Queen’s Miracle Treat Day. When asked by Ryan Lemond, he said that those interactions are an integral part of his job — especially when the feedback is negative. “You’ve got to listen. You’ve got to listen, and part of that is, it will not be the only time that I shake the hands of the fans. You know, whether it’s inbound contact from emails or whatever. Listen, I value very much what the fans have to say, and so people will have very candid conversations with me, or they’ll provide feedback. That’s okay. I like that. That’s how we get better. But it’ll be one-on-one. I’ll listen to what folks are saying. You know, part of that is we’re really fortunate: BBN will tell us what they’re feeling.” Batt will find out just how true that is in the coming months and years; in the meantime, he’s loving every minute of his new life in Lexington. “I just want everybody in Big Blue Nation to hear from me directly: they matter the most. This place is special because of them and because of the people, and we’re really lucky to be here.” Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.