Greg Williams, CEO of the insurance firm Acrisure, and his wife Dawn Williams have announced a $401 million financial commitment Michigan State University athletics. The donation is the largest single commitment in the history of the university and one of the largest single commitment amounts in college athletics history.
Acrisure, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is touted as the 6th-largest insurance broker in the world and “is approaching $4 billion in revenue” this year, according to Williams’ LinkedIn profile. The firm was founded in 2005 and has used an aggressive acquisition strategy and a tech-forward approach to grow rapidly over the last two decades.
The Detroit News estimates his net worth at over $1 billion.
$11 million of the gift will be designated for academic and extracurricular activities, with the remainder going to the athletics department. Among the academic programs being supported are the MSU Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Risk Management and Financial Insurance Program in the Eli Broad College of Business.
The commitment is almost as big as the $500 million settlement the university had to pay to victims of disgraced physician Larry Nassar, the largest settlement ever reached in a sexual abuse case involving an American university.
Michigan State cuts its varsity swimming & diving team after the 2020-2021 season, citing a projected revenue shortfall of more than $30 million and the lack of a facility to field a competitive team.
In light of the new commitment, and a projected February 2026 completion date for the school’s new $200 million rec center that includes a 50-meter pool, this brings up questions about the potential for reinstatement of the swimming & diving program. In 2023, Michigan State Board of Trustees chair Rema Vassar said that there was a “window of opportunity” for reinstatement, though there hasn’t been much public movement since.
SwimSwam reached out to the Battle for MSU Swim & Dive group, the organized group of alumni that have been petitioning to reinstate the program, and they said that while there were no updates to share publicly yet, they planned to have speakers at Friday’s Michigan State University Board of Trustees meeting.
Michigan State reported a 10.7% investment return on its endowment in the 2025 fiscal year, below the national average of endowments greater than $1 billion (11.5%). While the $401 million commitment is unlikely to come in a lump sum, even a 10.7% investment return on that amount would be more-than-enough to cover the new House payments for its football and basketball programs.
The school originally told boosters that they needed to raise $6.5 million to revive the swim program, but after the school approached $5 million the target was lifted to $26.5 million.
Hypothetically, we would’ve destroyed them in a dual meet if it ever happened. Go Royals!
alumn said “our athletes come to play not school ;)”
The Larry Nassar comparison is crazy
Swimming is not coming back… Most of the funds will be routed to support football and basketball and admin pay raises
Let’s hope that they make a comeback, that would be awesome. Last line in the article is a grim reminder of how little these departments care sometimes. Exactly the same as Cal Poly. With 401 million though you would hope there would be enough to go around.
Thanks CHRIST it’s not going to academical.
Randy
How much of it will go to Randy? Not enough.