All that culminated Wednesday night in New York City, when Hollis was named the 2012 Athletic Director of the Year by SportsBusiness Journal for his work during his fourth year with the university.

“It was an event that was much grander than I had envisioned — it went well beyond college sports,” Hollis said during a media roundtable Thursday afternoon. “When you get an honor like that, you kind of reflect and as we work so hard every day to get better than the day before. It was a chance to go back and really reflect on what this past year was like, and some of those things leading up to it.”

Hollis beat out Temple’s Bill Bradshaw, Michigan’s Dave Brandon, Arkansas’ Jeff Long and Baylor’s Ian McCaw for the award, the fifth that has been handed out by SportsBusiness Journal.

When asked about the sacrifices he has made in his personal life to advance MSU athletics, Hollis became emotional.

“Being in this business is a challenge with family life, and it’s stressful,” he said, choked up. “(My children) get a lot of great opportunities but they also miss their dad. That kind of all came together last night.”

“I love this place, I love my family … to have them there was a thrill. My family’s face as I walked up — it was a blessing.”

Despite his accomplishments Hollis is among the lowest paid coaches in the Big Ten, according to a study conducted by USA Today last fall. His base salary of $395,000 placed him above only Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, with 10 conference schools reporting.

Still, Hollis isn’t concerned about his role with the university, or with getting a raise.

“I have met with President Simon over the last several months and we are in a good place as far as what my future is at Michigan State,” he said. “I’m very comfortable with where the Board of Trustees and the President has me, so I think we’ll be here for a long time based on that.”

Playoffs possible?

In addition to the honor of being named the nation’s top athletic director, Hollis’ roundtable covered a multitude of subjects, including the ongoing debate of the possibility of a college football playoff system to replace the much maligned BCS.

Fresh off a series of meetings held last week in Chicago between athletic directors from around the Big Ten, Hollis went more in depth on the conference’s position regarding football playoffs, as well as his own personal feelings.

Hollis said above all, the NCAA should do whatever it can to maintain the integrity of the 12-game regular season and national bowl games while still implementing a playoff system.

“I would like to see a situation where we can keep the bowls as part of a structure and the biggest reason I say that is that’s what the student athletes want,” he said. “They want a bowl experience, they don’t want an NFL playoff experience.”

With a potential four-team playoff in play, Hollis addressed which teams the Big Ten feels should be able to participate. A hot topic of debate has been whether those four teams should have to win their conference titles, a proposal Hollis said the Big Ten was in favor of.

“It’ll be interesting to see how that one plays out because of opinions that in some years, the three best college football teams in the country come out of the same conference,” he said. “And while that’s said, we believe (we should) let the regular season play out, find out who the champion is and throw them together on a national basis.”

At the moment, all talks regarding the proposed playoff have been limited to in-conference talks. Hollis said the conference commissioners have held meetings with the teams in their individual conferences to determine their interests. He said there likely will be a meeting with the conference commissioners very soon to compile the results from each conference, but at the moment planning still is in the early phases.

“There’s not a document placed in front of the athletic directors saying this is the plan,” Hollis said. “It’s each conference putting out their soundbyte right now.”

Another chance

Despite a roster filled with young talent and another season in the multimillion dollar Secchia Stadium at Old College Field, things didn’t go according to plan for head coach Jacquie Joseph and the MSU softball program in 2012.

The Spartans finished 11-42 on the season, including going winless in 23 games against Big Ten opponents. In addition, the Spartans ended the season on a 19-game losing streak and did not secure a single home victory.

Hollis said he will retain Joseph as head coach for the time being, despite being frustrated with the program.

“I don’t think the easy solution to any problem in terminating somebody that’s a coach,” he said. “I think you have to go through a process of what goes in and what comes out. Have I done everything as an athletic director to make that program as successful as possible? Have other people in this department done everything possible to make that program as successful as possible?”

“I don’t give up on people. Jacquie Joseph in a value to this athletics department. She’s embraced by a lot of people and I’m gonna do everything in my power to see that she has an opportunity to be successful and we’ve had some very frank conversations. She feels the same way I do so we’re going to give it a go and see if we can pull some magic out.”

In 23 seasons, Joseph has accumulated more than 550 victories, making her the winningest coach in the history of the softball program. However, the Spartans have finished higher than sixth place in the Big Ten only once in the last 10 seasons and are coming off a year that left a lot to be desired from both the fans and the administration.

But in this case, Hollis said he wants to provide Joseph with the tools she needs to be successful and will reevaluate her job status if he feels that goals are not being met in the future.

“When you go through and judge things, 0-23 is 0-23 and that’s where a lot of people will focus,” he said. “I look at games, I look at how close games are, I look at what’s missing that she was counting on going into the season. I try to turn over every rock and evaluate it. Again, I believe in people and if we can guide people to a better place, I think that’s what our role is here.”

On the horizon

Since returning to his alma mater in 1995, Hollis has built a reputation of being a “mad scientist” for hosting athletic events in unusual venues.

In 2001, Hollis was the mastermind behind the “Cold War” hockey game between MSU and Michigan at Spartan Stadium, which was attended by a then-world record crowd of 74,554. Since then, he crafted the “BasketBowl” between MSU and Kentucky in 2003 at Ford Field in Detroit. More recently, he scheduled the men’s basketball team in the first Carrier Classic aboard the USS Carl Vinson naval ship in San Diego.

So what’s next? According to Hollis, nothing yet.

Even with several events on the table, Hollis said MSU’s focus for the next year will be to better the homefront on campus before scheduling the next major event on a global scale.

“As you go through those events, what I hope is that most of our focus is on the routine,” he said. “It doesn’t capture the attention but winning football championships, winning basketball championships, what (women’s golf coach) Stacy (Slobodnik-Stoll’s) doing with golf, what (baseball head coach) Jake (Boss Jr.’s) done out here. That’s gotta be your core focus. Those special events can not detract from that mission.”

The MSU basketball team will make a return to the Carrier Classic during the 2013 season, with the opponent and official location to be determined. Hollis entertained the idea of playing Notre Dame in the massive basketball spectacle, considering the program hasn’t faced the Fighting Irish in basketball since 1979.

Another event that has been discussed is a basketball game between MSU and USC played in Athens, Greece. Though Hollis has discussed the game — and other scenarios benefitting both budget and interest — details are limited, as nothing has been scheduled yet.

“The Greece game is one possibility that we’d look at, at some point and time where we feel like it makes sense,” he said. “But there’s other opportunities out there to travel the globe, as long as you can do it and monetize those trips.”

“Coming up this year, there’s great opportunities to explore our leadership role in diversity and we’re looking at a variety of things, both in football and basketball. There’s some milestones to celebrate. A very positive difference made at Michigan State at a critical time in our nation’s history. We look forward to celebrating some of those as we move forward. Next year is gonna be a little bit about home, a little bit about here, a little bit about our history. But, we’re exploring the globe for that next site.”