"This moment will have a profound impact on generations of Spartans," Guskiewicz said at press conference announcing the Williamses' commitment.

That moment, records obtained by The State News through a public record request show, was months in the making.

Greg and Dawn Williams first sent a letter to Guskiewicz indicating they wanted to give MSU a $300 million gift on Oct. 6, 2025, nearly two months before the deal was announced. (The letter did not mention the $100 million investment the pair also made into Spartan Media Ventures, which was announced alongside their gift.)

The letter, while laying out the Williamses' proposed terms and conditions of their gift, didn’t constitute a legally binding commitment. 

MSU Spokesperson Amber McCann said that it's not surprising the announcement was made more than a month after the university first received the Williamses letter. Cash donations can occasionally take multiple months to process while the formal terms of their disbursement are being hashed out, McCann added.

"There was time that had to go into the university working with the Williams family and their representatives to finalize their contribution to MSU," she said. 

The letter provides a glimpse into how the Williamses' first proposed their gift be allocated: $90 million to the athletic department's Competitive Excellence Fund, $5.5 million to the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, $3 million to the business college's Risk Management and Financial Insurance Program, $1 million to the MSU Marching and Pep Bands and $500,000 to the Sparty mascot program.

Also specified in the letter is an additional $200 million donation to the Competitive Excellence Fund, although additional details surrounding the donation were redacted by MSU.

The first $100 million donation, the letter outlined, would be dispersed in $50 million packages released on the last days of 2027 and 2028.

When the commitment was announced on Dec. 5, the agreement had shifted to gift $290 million to the athletic department's fundraising campaign and donate $11 million to the non-athletic programs mentioned in the letter.

The first of those donations — $500,000 to the marching band and $500,000 to the mascot program — was formally signed by Greg and Dawn Williams on Dec. 2, 2025, according to University Advancement documents obtained through a public record request.

That same day, MSU entered a new era with a press conference announcing its new football coach and unveiling the athletics fundraising campaign — which would soon be more than a quarter of the way to its goal.