Michigan State Football Players Lose Their Minds Over Beautiful New Locker Room In Oddly-Named Building

Michigan State football has new digs for the 2023 season and it looks beautiful. The Spartans got the first look at their new locker room on Wednesday afternoon.

They lost their minds!

Construction got underway on the team's state-of-the-art, 65,000-square-foot building in April 2022. One portion of the add-on is for all of the athletes, one portion is for Michigan State's media team and one portion is for football only.

Most importantly, though, is the football team's part of the building. It is the football building after all.

Spread across two floors, the first level of the expanded weight room will house sports science, training and cardio equipment, as well as a custom built sprint ramp, plyo boxes and stairs. The second level will house lifting and weight equipment.

The recruiting corridor will allow the Spartans to "wow" recruits. It will be the flashiest part of the building. The coaching staff's recruiting war room is right next door.

There will also be room for the team's equipment staff. A direct connection to the loading dock will help with loading and unloading before and after road games.

And then there's the locker rom, the heart of the new facility.

Michigan State's new locker room is gorgeous.

Within the locker room are 126 custom lockers and a 35' x 8' hot/cold recovery pool. Players got their first look at the new space on Wednesday and loved what they saw.

Excitement in East Lansing just goes to show that facilities do still matter, despite what other head coaches and athletic directors might be saying. NIL might be king when it comes to recruiting in 2023, but the Spartans' brand-new locker room will certainly help to make an impression. It's pretty sweet!

The boys were buzzing.

As cool as the new football building is going to be, its name is still a bit puzzling.

The Tom Izzo Football Building.

A building that is being renovated for football only is named after the active head basketball coach— Tom Izzo. It's rather confusing.

There is a reason for the name, but that doesn't really make it any less odd.

Mat Ishbia, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage and the owner of the Phoenix Mercury and Suns, donated $32 million toward the new building. As a result, he got to choose the name.

Ishbia was a walk-on guard for the basketball team and won a national title in 2000. Izzo's impact on his life was so profound that he named the football building after him.

It seems like, perhaps, Ishbia could have donated to the basketball facility and named that building after Izzo. Or maybe Michigan State could have just renamed the basketball building after Izzo on behalf of Ishbia while his money went to the football building.

Oh well. The Michigan State football building is now named after the head basketball coach.